


seafoam

by dawons



Series: March to the Sea [2]
Category: SF9 (Band)
Genre: Angst, Character "death", Gore, Heavy Angst, M/M, Sad, Trust Issues, juho is baby, juho: :D, marine biologist!youngbin, mermaid!juho, no tws on chapters, sanghyuk/inseong are married, slowburn, tagged ships may or may not be endgame, theyre also a mess, you know who i am, you know who i am as a person/writer, youngbin: confused
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-14
Updated: 2020-04-29
Packaged: 2020-12-16 10:39:58
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 66,649
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21034901
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dawons/pseuds/dawons
Summary: When Youngbin finally sees what Seokwoo had previously been blocking from him, he has to stop and take a breath because of what's there. Not because there's an extremely attractive blonde struggling to get off of the examination table, or because there’s a deep gash in the soft skin on his hip; but because instead of having legs, Youngbin's greeted by the sight of a glimmering red tail.or alternatively; the one where youngbin falls in love with an idiot mermaid





	1. depth

"Thanks for coming tonight, Youngbin."

The brunette looks up and smiles, clapping a hand against his closest friend's shoulder. The feeling of his tuxedo is like velvet against Youngbin’s fingertips. "Inseong, I wouldn't miss this for the world."

Youngbin and Inseong had been best friends since childhood. And, when Inseong had invited him over to meet his new boyfriend (Lee Sanghyuk, heir to a powerful gaming company) three years ago, he knew that they would get married. And maybe that conclusion was made when he caught them flirting, drunk, over a bottle of red wine on Inseong's couch. But regardless, they were perfect for each other. Mainly because they were both insane, with Sanghyuk seeming to never shut up while Inseong had some _extremely_ questionable ideas, but that was besides the point.

"I know you wouldn't." Inseong laughs, bringing his glass of champagne to his lips. He looks fondly across the room to where his younger brother, Chanhee, is talking to Sanghyuk, the two slowly nearing the door leading to the balcony. "I hope they get along well, Chanhee's always been a little hesitant towards my relationships, especially with guys..."

"Oh, I'm sure they will," Youngbin sighs over his own glass, leaning back in his chair. The reception for their wedding was in a beach house that Inseong had rented out for the night. He'd spent the day before getting it ready, though Youngbin and their friend Jimin had tried to persuade him to let them do it instead. Inseong had refused, wanting to do it himself; he thought it would be more memorable. To him, each inch of the home now had some meaning to him. Like the corner that tape wouldn’t stick to when he was trying to hang a banner, or the door that banged when it shut and startled Inseong so badly that he dropped a wine glass and shattered it.

The house looked great, though. The kitchen was a converted into a bar, the island being where everyone was conversing over drinks and shots, and the living room was changed into a dining area. There were probably ten different tables in the space, some occupied and some abandoned, but all clean and looking freshly prepared. Inseong had done his best to provide a beautiful party, and he’d succeeded.

Outside, the setting sun glistens on the ocean below, casting orange and yellow rays over the darkening waters before winking out of existence. The house was on a cliff, the balcony and overhangs being the only part over the edge entirely. Youngbin was positive that someday this house would fall into the ocean, but it wouldn't be tonight. Who would build a home in such a precarious place? He hopes the owner has good insurance.

Inseong's smile drops when Chanhee and Sanghyuk reach the door and Chanhee is immediately trying to shove the older over the ledge, which would lead to the cliff, which would lead to the end of Inseong's brand new marriage.

"Fuck," he whispers, setting his glass down. Nobody else had seemed to notice the murder attempt outside yet.

"What? Oh," Youngbin looks between the scene and the horrified newlywed, deciding to stop the situation himself. After, of course, he downs his entire glass of champagne, pours himself another, and drinks that too before taking action. "I'll handle this."

Inseong stands up behind him, nervously fidgeting in place as he watches Youngbin leave.

Youngbin walks confidently over to the door, wiping his hand across his mouth as Sanghyuk is bent at an uncomfortable angle, clawing at the wooden posts to get back up before he flips over and fucking _dies_.

Chanhee seethes. "You're _dead_!"

"Chanhee, what the fuck are you doing!?" Youngbin steps outside, yanking the younger backwards, which in turn drags Sanghyuk back over to safety. "Shit, can't you wait a little while before trying to kill your brother’s husband?"

"He stole my wife!" Chanhee hollers, and thankfully the door's closed or else the whole party would be getting an earful. And a confusing one at that, since the act Chanhee is accusing Sanghyuk of contrasts nastily against the wedding party. Sanghyuk immediately smirks, wrapping an arm around Chanhee's shoulders before dragging him down into a headlock.

Youngbin shakes his head, frowning at the two. "Inseong is inside nearly in tears because he thinks his _husband _and his _brother_ hate each other!” Youngbin defends his friend, anger dripping from his tone like venom.

Sanghyuk has the nerve to let go of Chanhee and look guiltily down at his shoes, but Chanhee still refuses. "I _do_ hate him." He insists, frowning.

"Why?"

Sanghyuk raises his hand, and Youngbin points at him to speak. Chanhee looks exasperated. "You know the new game I just released?" He doesn't wait for Youngbin to nod, because he obviously doesn't know about it. "Well, turns out Chanhee over here," he wraps his arm around the boy's shoulders again, pulling him against his side roughly, "is an avid player. _And _he just so happens to be in my rival guild. So perhaps, I kidnapped his wife and brought her into _my _guild, then killed Chanhee, raided his entire house, and stole everything he'd worked up for."

Baffled, Youngbin can't even bring himself to blink. A game was this important to them? He remembers Chanhee's Snapchat rant about this game and about somebody destroying his character’s life, but he would have never expected it to be Sanghyuk, which really should have been the first person he'd suspect. "How did you just find out that it was him, Chanhee?"

"He has an online alias," Chanhee struggles to get out of the other's grip, moving down to bite his hand. When he does, Sanghyuk winces and pulls his hand away. "Dawon. He uses it with every game..."

"Chanhee's is just Chanhee with an I, so I knew it was him when I checked his player card. And he had his Twitter in his profile bio, so… I mean, I’m not Einstein," Sanghyuk points out, motioning to himself, “but I figured that one out pretty easily.”

"Don't talk about me, homewrecker. You stole my _wife_."

“She’s pretty shit at the game,” Sanghyuk comments absently.

“Don’t talk about her like she’s some common bitch!”

The door opens behind them, and Youngbin reaches an arm over to wrap his fingers around Inseong's wrist, pulling him over gently as the large glass door swings shut behind him. "Is everything okay out here?" His cheeks are tinted pink from the drinks, and darken with the cold dusk air. Winter would be setting in soon, and tonight was one of the last nights that could be considered warm though the weather forecast was threatening snow for the end of the week. "Please don't fight..." He whines, moving his hands forward to grab one of Sanghyuk's and one of Chanhee's. "Let's all just be friends."

Inside, a crowd has gathered around the "bar", beginning to engage in a standard drink off. Inseong's friends were assholes, as were Sanghyuk's. The group turns to watch in astonishment as a familiar pink haired boy tilts his head back to take a shot, then another, and soon he's on his twelfth and the girl next to him doubles over and slams her shot glass on the smooth wooden bar, signaling his victory.

"Jimin's really going at it tonight, huh?"

"He's showing off his talent," Sanghyuk shrugs.

"His singular talent?" Inseong moves over next to him, leaning against the railing. Chanhee eyes someone inside at the bar, gaze lingering on them. He completely ignores the domestic action beside himself, too focused on whoever stands inside to care.

Sanghyuk rests his head on his husband's shoulder, face locked in an expression of docile contentedness. "I guess so."

It's quiet for a moment between the four of them, the only sound coming from the waves breaking hundreds of yards below them. Chanhee decides after Sanghyuk and Inseong decide to make out on the balcony that he'd had enough and heads inside to cheer on Jimin as he takes on his next opponent. Or, maybe he challenges him. Youngbin only catches a glimpse of him before he's swallowed up by the crowd.

Youngbin feels his phone vibrate against his hip, and when he pulls it out he groans. Jaeyoon, his coworker. He'd only call if something was horribly wrong back at the lab. "I need to go take this," he waves it, his finger hovering over the accept button. Inseong doesn’t answer him, lips too busy on Sanghyuk’s to form proper words, let alone sentences.

However, Inseong’s husband is the one to answer. "Work?" Sanghyuk pouts, breaking away from Inseong, who doesn't know why when he chases his lips, catching them again after Sanghyuk responds.

"Yeah," Youngbin sighs, "I'm sorry."

Inseong finally realizes what's happening and breaks the contact, leaning back against the railing to catch his breath. Youngbin smiles, the phone call ending only to start back up again. This time, Youngbin hits decline immediately so he can focus on Inseong. "I'm so happy for you."

Inseong reaches over and grabs his arm, pulling him over to hug him. His breath is warm on the other’s neck as he speaks, and Youngbin feels his heart swell with pride when he hears the happiness in the other’s voice, when he sees the shiny ring on one of the fingers that cling weakly to Youngbin’s side. "Thanks for coming, I'm really glad you did."

"I wouldn't have missed it," the brunette laughs, pulling away after a few moments of silence. The call ends again, right before he's getting a call back. Jaeyoon then decides to call and hang up every two seconds so he seems more urgent. "I'll text you later. I think Jaeyoon's going to call me in."

"What gives you that idea?" Sanghyuk rolls his eyes, completely passive, a grin resting on his face.

"That's okay!" Inseong waves a hand. "We'll catch you another time. Maybe next weekend? Chanhee's got a thing, I think he'd be really happy if you showed up."

"Yes," Youngbin turns as he's walking out, pointing a finger at them. "I'd love to be there. An art thing?" Inseong nods. "Ah, you two are so fucking artistic. I'll be there." He turns to leave again, stepping through the doorway. "Congratulations!" Youngbin calls over his shoulder as he enters the beach house again, looking at the bar as Jimin takes yet another shot. He accepts the next call he gets. "Jaeyoon- what?"

"_You need to get down here right fucking now._"

Youngbin would be pissed, had he not heard the underlying panic in his friend's voice. "Whoa, okay, what's wrong?"

"_I don't know, please come down. Just- fuck, what?_" Jaeyoon's voice wavers as he moves away from the phone for a moment. "_It's awake? Shit. Okay. Youngbin! Hurry your ass down here- Fuck! Shit, ‘Kyun, sedate- don't throw things!_" The call drops and so does Youngbin's jaw. He runs past the crowd, down the wooden stairs, which he nearly slips down, and out the front door. The parking lot is slick with a rain that had since passed but not dried completely yet, and he soaks his shoes entirely in a puddle as he runs to his truck. A white Ford, _Marilyn_, his pride and joy.

It beeps when he hits the button on his keys, and he practically lunges into the front seat, clambering to yank his seat belt over his waist. "What the fuck, Jaeyoon?" He whispers, shoving the key into the ignition before speeding off. The short road that leads to the beach house connects to the highway, and once he arrives on the long, twisting stretch of road he lays on the gas, raking a hand through his hair as he speeds down the highway. "What the fuck?"

He and Jaeyoon were partner marine biologists that worked specifically in taking in wounded or sick sea creatures and taking care of them until they healed, when they would release them. In turn, they would tag them and gain a bit more research for the species, targeting specifically their migration and swimming patterns. Sometimes they went out deeper into the bay they usually worked from, to where the shore only looked like a sliver against the sky and waves. That was Youngbin's favorite place to be, completely secluded yet still so out in the open, able to scream while nobody would be able to hear him.

So far they'd tagged over five hundred different creatures, ranging from small fish to baby sharks to even, luckily, one great white that Youngbin liked to call Honey. He'd nearly lost a finger tagging her, but it was worth it, of course. He’d gained bragging rights over the entirety of his workplace.

A flash of blue and red lights from ahead makes Youngbin slow down his vehicle significantly, and just by abiding the law he's bothered. Couldn't they understand that he was about to be part of something big? He still waves at the officer when they wave at him from where they direct the smallest bit of traffic around a working road crew, though, and while Youngbin's waiting to be let through he leans over and turns on his music. Something slow, something quiet. His nerves were pounding too hard for his liking and he would much rather calm himself down before he arrived at the lab.

Jaeyoon was never worried by anything, so the fact that he'd panicked so much on the phone was definitely concerning. Something was horribly, horribly wrong. Youngbin swallows nervously, fingers trembling as he decides on a station and glances back up at the road, settling uncomfortably back against his seat.

When he's directed to keep driving, he cuts out onto the next exit and onto another road, suddenly worrying significantly more about Jaeyoon. Though, excitement did bubble up underneath his anxiety. Had Jaeyoon brought in the shark that was showing up in the cove recently? Because if he did, it was a terrible decision on his part, really. That thing was _massive_. He was positive it was a great white, but Jaeyoon was bent on it being a tiger. Their intern, Youngkyun, whom Youngbin wanted to set up with Chanhee desperately, thought it might just be a bull.

The road turns from pavement to gravel to dirt the farther he drives, and when he turns a corner too roughly his truck nearly tips over. After that, he decides to slow down a bit more, because he really didn't want to die wearing a fucking tuxedo. He’d already be dressed for his own funeral.

His phone rings again, and he only accepts the call after making sure it's Jaeyoon. Jaeyoon’s worried, honey voice rings out over the Bluetooth. He’s gasping for breath as he speaks. "_Hi!_"

"What the fuck is going on down there!? I leave for two days and suddenly you're destroying the whole lab? This better be good, or I swear..."

"_It's a long story. Uh, how far are you?_"

"Five minutes. I was speeding down the highway, thanks to you! I could've gotten a ticket! Or died! Or worse? Tipped the car. If this isn’t worth it I swear to God..."

"_I don't care. This is important. I don't know how long the sedation will last, but it looks like it's wearing off and we only put it in ten minutes ago."_

Youngbin hits the gas again. It was the shark, that had to be the only thing strong enough to wear down a sedation so quickly. Especially if they were using the new drug, which had been advertised to keep a barracuda under for at least an hour. "Three minutes. What did you bring in this time, Jae’?"

"_I'm really hoping you can tell me..._"

Youngbin turns onto another back road, car bumping over the stones in the road. Trees surround him on either side, the road only lit up from his headlights. The branches completely blocked out any light from the moon and stars. It was ominous, and Youngbin always had the feeling something would lunge out of the trees and stop his car, or try to drag him out of it, when he drove down this path during the nighttime.

"_Hey, are you close- Youngkyun, __don’t touch it__!_"

"Yeah," Youngbin leans back in his seat, shaking his head. "Just a minute."

Soon, Youngbin hangs up and pulls up into the parking lot of the lab. Thankfully, he has a backpack with spare clothes in the backseat, and he reaches back and slings it over an arm before getting out of the car. Jaeyoon stands in front of the door after rushing out at the sight of Marilyn, only wearing his shorts. He shivers, a strand of wet pink hair bobbing in front of his face. "I'm glad you came." He crosses his arms in front of himself, shaking from the cold.

"I've heard that enough tonight," Youngbin mutters, stripping off his vest right in the parking lot, followed by his undershirt and pants, knowing for sure that nobody in their right mind would be wandering through the forest that night. Especially not near the cove, which sits only about thirty yards away from the parking lot. It was always much colder near the shore. He opens his bag and pulls on a black shirt and black shorts, grimacing at the thought that he'd be getting wet tonight when he just wanted to go home and sleep.

"Well, this is a situation in more ways than one," Jaeyoon frowns as he begins trying to explain, opening the front door to the lab, "let's hurry, before it wakes up."

As he follows after the other, running right on his heels down the long hallway, Youngbin smirks.“So, it’s a white, right? Not a bull, not a tiger?”The sound of their shoes on the tiled floor echoes through the hall emptily.

Jaeyoon looks at him for a moment in confusion before shrugging. They burst into the main room at the end of the hall, where the stench of chlorine, bleach, blood and sea salt hit them all at once. Youngbin gags, but Jaeyoon seems used to it after being exposed for so long. He just cringes, sucking in a breath through his mouth before exhaling it shakily, training himself to not use his nose for breathing for the time being.

Youngkyun runs back and forth from the main room to the observation room, panicked as he tries to find the older who had left him seemingly alone. When he sees Jaeyoon, his eyes soften, but fear still pulses through them. "Jaeyoon, we need to sedate it again!"

Immediately Youngbin's friend goes into work mode, frantically joining the other on the way to the next room, waving Youngbin over. "If we sedate him again, we'll kill him."

"Well, Seokwoo's having a bitch of a time holding it down!"

Youngbin can barely hear the shouting through the thick walls, but when he does, it puts more of an urgency on their running, their steps light on the floor. Youngbin feels like he’s flying. "What is it?"

"We don't know!" Jaeyoon calls back, moving down the hallway towards the observation room (the last room on the right, not to be confused with the last room on the left, which was a storage closet. Youngbin had made this error countless times before).

"God, I feel like I'm on acid," Youngkyun murmurs in disbelief, throwing open the door. The smell of blood is stronger in the observation room, and Youngbin sees it pooling on the floor underneath an examination table, but that’s all he sees.

Seokwoo stands above the table, trying desperately to hold something down, his arms being thrown back every few moments. Youngbin’s sure he sees fingers curling around the other’s biceps, forcing them away each time they lurch downwards. "Hey- stop it!"

Whatever lays on the table, struggling with enough sedative in it to put down a whale, clearly isn’t a shark. In fact, it likely isn’t even something logical, or something Youngbin could explain.

And, when Youngbin finally runs over to help Seokwoo, he has to stop and take a breath because of what he sees. Not because there's an extremely attractive blonde struggling to get off of it, but because instead of legs he's greeted with the sight of a glimmering red tail.

This wasn't possible. The moment the boy's eyes meet Youngbin’s he lashes out again, fingernails digging into the skin on Seokwoo's arms where he's trying to push him away. A deep gash on his side drips down a deep, red liquid onto the linoleum floor, though he seems to be struggling fine with the wound.

"Fuck, can you help me!?" Seokwoo shrieks, wincing when the other's fingers finally dig deep enough to draw blood, which slips down his arm effortlessly, joining the creature’s on the floor.

Jaeyoon pushes Seokwoo out of the way, taking his place holding down the boy. However, instead of holding him down, he just places his hands gently onto the creature’s shoulders and eases him down. Maybe his adrenaline wears off, or maybe the blood loss finally gets to him, but the boy lets Jaeyoon guide him back down, brown eyes wide with panic. "Hey, take it easy, okay?" He murmurs, looking over to Seokwoo and Youngbin. "You two get out of here, Youngkyun and I can handle him."

His voice, softer and quieter than Youngbin had ever heard it, was pleading with them. Jaeyoon knew they wanted to stay and help, but there was no possible way that the two could be close to the table without agitating the blonde. Hesitantly, Youngbin nods, looking over to Seokwoo who clutches his arm, a pained grimace crossing his face.

"We'll be outside." Youngbin leads Seokwoo out of the room, urging him back into the main room.

Seokwoo grits his teeth. "This fucking hurts." Blood dribbles past his trembling fingertips, soaking his hand and arm with a disgusting red. “Fuck… It’s so bad. It’s gonna scar, right?”

"What? Oh," Youngbin looks down to Seokwoo's arm, gently pulling the other’s hand off of the wound to investigate it. Four large holes, all deep and oozing, mark the spot where the creature had grabbed Seokwoo."It might...” It definitely will.

Seokwoo scoffs, walking to the bathroom the next room over. He grabs a wad of toilet paper and presses it against his injury, whining the whole time as he leans against the sink in the dark room, keeping the door propped open by his foot. The computers in the main room whir as they sit idle, the only sound other than Seokwoo’s complaining in the large room.Youngbin feels like the building is a maze; the main room splitting off into the bathroom, storage, and observation room; while the front hall holds conference rooms and sectioned off laboratories.

"This sucks!” Seokwoo cries. “Why do _we _have to find the goddamn mermaid!? And tonight, of all nights," he sighs, “there was a drama premiere an hour ago… I didn’t want to miss it.”

"Merman."

"What?"

Youngbin flushes, cheeks reddening as he realizes he’d corrected the other suddenly. "Wouldn't he, uh, be a merman?" It was insane he had to say this. Mermaids didn't exist, he couldn’t believe what he’d seen was real on the examination table.

Seokwoo rolls his eyes, but his lips turn up into a hesitant smile. "I don't care what he is. I want to patch up that wound and get him back to wherever he came from, but that won't happen as long as he attacks me each time I get close to him. I hope Youngkyun knows what he's doing..."

The brunette nods, turning and peeking in through the glass window on the observation room’s door to check on the three. Youngkyun is laughing, slowly working a needle and thread through the gashes on the boy's side. The blonde has his eyes closed, eyebrows drawn down in pain and lips trembling, but he keeps silent and still for the two, a quiet contrast against who he was with Seokwoo. Jaeyoon is saying something to the both of them quietly, stepping back towards the connected room; the second half of the observation room. It had a saltwater pool that could be opened up to the cove through a button in the main room. It was where they kept most of the animals they’d had to keep a closer eye on, those that were severely injured and needed extra attention.

"Seokwoo, how long have you been here?" Youngbin hums, stepping away from the door. Seokwoo looks up quickly from wiping his arm, black hair bouncing at the quickness of the movement. He had never blown up at anyone for anything unless he was extremely tired, so the fact that he was upset over something so new and, though insane, exciting, was appalling to Youngbin.

"Since this morning."

"The fuck? Go home." Youngbin frowns, crossing his arms.

"I can't," Seokwoo points in the general direction of the observation room, unblinking as he tries to come up with an excuse to stay.

"You're exhausted. I'll call you as soon as we figure everything out, but you need to go home and get some rest."

The boy doesn't argue, just agrees slowly and waves a quick goodbye as he goes to grab his things from where he kept them in the main room. Youngbin doesn't have to wait long for anything else to happen, as soon the door behind him swings open and Youngkyun steps out, smiling. "Hey, can you go help Jaeyoon? He wants me to go down to the dock and clear the pool."

Youngbin swallows nervously, scuffing the toe of his shoe against the floor. "Yeah, of course."

Stepping into the room sends a bout of nervousness racing through his pulse, which thrums so loudly he's positive that's why the blonde is glaring at him from where he's laying, curled up, on the table. Because a warm blooded pulse must be bothersome to something used to the cold, to something that must have hidden in the depths to stay a secret from humanity for so long.

Youngkyun rushes past him to enter the connected room, disappearing behind a part of the wall that juts out and keeps the examination aspect of the room separate from the observation part.

"Hey...” Youngbin smiles faintly, raising a hand in greeting.

The creature hisses at him, and Youngbin winces as he drops his hand.

He grimaces at the sound, letting out a shaky breath before responding. "Not a talker? Got it. That's cool. We're cool. I'll keep my distance. You're cool. Nice. Wow. I'm, uh..." He sweats.

Jaeyoon turns to Youngbin before walking down the corridor separating the observation room from the pool. "I'm going to go turn the filter on so we can move him to the pool, can you bring him over when I call you?"

Youngbin nods, leaning against the wall opposite the boy as Jaeyoon runs around the corner. For some reason, whoever had designed the specific filter they'd bought had decided to place the power switch directly on the device, making it impossible to turn on unless you swam down to it, since it was positioned at the bottom of the pool. Youngbin listens until he hears the water splash once, then waits until Jaeyoon hits the surface again. He tries to avoid looking at the table, because every time he does he grows more anxious and the blonde's eyebrows grow heavier, eyes becoming more cautious and daring.

"Okay!" The other calls after two minutes (Youngbin had counted), voice sounding distant, "you're good!"

With his shoes squeaking awkwardly on the floor, Youngbin approaches the other. Everything he does makes him feel out of place, though the other was the stranger of the two. The boy grows more tense, trying to push himself further away but with his torn side he can't do much.

Youngbin glances down at the table he was on, pulling his lips together taut when he realizes that the table didn’t have wheels. He’d have to carry him, and all he can think of is the wounds on Seokwoo’s arm, that seemed so effortless for the blonde to inflict.

"So," Youngbin starts, a nervous laugh breaking through the tense expression on his face, "if I was to pick you up and bring you to Jaeyoon, would you try and attack me?"

He felt stupid, really. How could he even tell if the creature understood him? Maybe he should try whining at him instead. Was that insulting? Should he ask? What pitch of a whine would that even be? Each question leads to more, unanswerable questions, and Youngbin’s mind feels muddled as he stares at the other.

The boy shrugs, and Youngbin decides that he’s won. At least they understood each other; maybe. "Okay, so I'm going to lift you up, bring you to Jaeyoon, and then that's it. Okay? You won't have to deal with me again."

An unsure nod. He was _getting _somewhere. Youngbin counts this as a success for himself.

"Okay, then..." Youngbin maneuvers his hands so they don't touch any of the other’s bandaged injuries, slowly raising him up in his arms. He feels how tense the other is, slowly adjusting him to a better angle. "I won't drop you," he assures, and the boy nods, cheek resting against the other's chest as he allows the older to carry him over to wherever Jaeyoon is, too tired to try and fight again.

The distance isn’t long, but the walk is since Youngbin is struggling to hold up another body besides his own. He was so small and thin, yet the weight was making Youngbin's arms tremble. It must have been the tail weighing him down. It swings idly, the tip of it brushing against Youngbin's thigh, sending shivers up his body. "So..."

They make brief eye contact before Youngbin breaks it, his face flushing. "Do you have a name?"

Silence follows his question, and he doesn't hate it. He's more relieved, really, because a name would make this whole situation a lot more real than it already was. He was coping by telling himself he was dreaming to keep away the panic attack, because he was carrying around a supposedly nonexistent creature, and he’s sure if he knows it’s all real he’ll lose it.

He thinks he hears him mumble, but Jaeyoon yells something over him and the blonde promptly quiets. Youngbin purses his lips in frustration. He didn’t_ want_ to know the other’s name, but he did at the same time. It was a complicated situation. "Are you coming?" Jaeyoon shouts.

"I am!" Youngbin calls back, somewhat quietly so he's not screaming in the other's face.

Soon the two arrive, and Jaeyoon leans against the side of the pool, treading water gently as he crosses his arms in front of him on the slate floor. "Took you long enough."

Youngbin rolls his eyes. "Shut up. Did you know Seokwoo has been here since this morning?"

"Wait, really?" Jaeyoon jumps up to sit on the edge of the pool, and Youngbin crouches down to bring the boy in his arms closer to the water. "He told me he got here right before me."

The blonde pushes against Youngbin, trying to put more distance between them and to get himself into the water quicker. In annoyance, Youngbin tips him over and drops him in, splashing himself in the process. He turns to speak to Jaeyoon, water dripping down his chin. "He's always trying to work longer hours. He's really passionate about this job, huh?"

"I guess so." Jaeyoon looks at the water, kicking his feet lightly.

Youngbin drops down and mirrors him, nervously putting his legs into the water. He wasn’t positive, but he had a fear that the blonde was going to come up from the depths and drag him in. Who knew if his species was carnivorous or not? He didn't want to find out, and quickly pulls his legs out of the water when the thought hits him. "So how long have you been here for?"

"Since three."

"PM?" Youngbin frowns, sticking a hand into the water so he can splash Jaeyoon with it. "And Youngkyun came in with you?" Jaeyoon nods, splashing Youngbin back halfheartedly. "Come on, you two should go home. I would've been long gone by now."

"I would, but..." Jaeyoon tilts his head towards the pool. "I have work to do."

"I'll do it," Youngbin hums, laying back before realizing he doesn't trust the thing with the tail and sits back up promptly. "Just tell me what you know and I'll stay here."

Jaeyoon shakes his head. "I wouldn't ask you to do that..."

Youngbin crosses his arms. "I will. You stay late all the time, just go home and get some sleep."

He seems to forget that what he's arguing for is exactly what he doesn't want, but he feels bad about not helping out with Jaeyoon's constant, tireless shifts and wants to let him get some real sleep for once.

"'Bin-"

"I'm telling you, not offering."

Jaeyoon brings a hand up, dragging it through his hair. "If you say so." He drags himself out of the pool, dripping water onto the floor as he goes to the rack across the room to grab a towel. "Seokwoo and I were out on the boat looking for the shark, just because we were bored and both had an hour left in our shifts," he grabs a towel and bends over, rubbing it over his head furiously before flipping his hair back, standing straight up again. "And we see something floating. At first, when he shines the light on it, we thinks it's some homeless guy that just got stuck in a _super_ unfortunate situation, but then we see the tail. And the blood."

"Do you think..." Youngbin trails off, looking around to see if he can see the boy in the dark water. "Whatever's out there attacked him?"

Jaeyoon nods. "I'm positive. But anyway, we get him up into the boat and bring him back here, trying to not focus on the tail and the fact that he's an," Jaeyoon pauses, "unconscious mermaid. And then I didn't _want _to call you, since you were at Inseong's wedding, but then he woke up and started lashing out at Youngkyun and Seokwoo, so I had no choice. Then I went over and he sort of... Calmed down." Jaeyoon looks quite pleased with himself when he says it, as if he’s proud that the creature trusted him before he trusted anyone else.

Youngbin sighs, smirking. "Alright, prince Eric."

"I swear! He attacked Youngkyun and Seokwoo but not me. Ask them."

The brunette finally spots the boy, curled up with his head tucked against his tail at the bottom of the pool. "Maybe..."

The other stops by the door, ready to grab his things and leave. "Update me every so often, okay?"

"I'll text you."

Jaeyoon leaves, and Youngbin lays back on the wet floor to stare at the ceiling, only a few inches away from the edge of the pool. "What did I get into...?" He murmurs, slowly closing his eyes. The other’s position made Youngbin sure that he wouldn’t try anything, and he hesitantly let his guard down.

The room is quiet for a good twenty minutes, the only sound being the soft, near inaudible humming of the filter pumping out clean saltwater into the pool. Youngbin opens his eyes again, feeling somebody watching him. He turns to see the blonde leaning on the edge of the pool nearest to him, about five inches away from his face, just _staring_. Youngbin tries not to scream, but he definitely widens his eyes and bites his tongue, trying not to cry out in alarm. His pulse beats roughly in his throat.

"Hi?" He whispers. The boy cocks his head, resting it on his arms. "I'm... gonna be here tonight... I don't want to leave you alone? I can, though. If you'd-"

The boy shakes his head quickly, droplets of water being flung around from his soaked hair, some hitting Youngbin gently. "Oh. Okay, then..."

Youngbin watches him for a moment, turning onto his side. "Can you understand me?"

He waits, but after a moment the other nods, avoiding eye contact. "So, you can speak, too?" Another nod. "But you won't?"

A shrug. Youngbin nods. "I get it. I wouldn't want to speak either, if our roles were switched. You must not trust us."

They stare at each other for a moment, but Youngbin thinks he sees a hint of a smile when the other's lip twitches. "My name's Youngbin," he murmurs, deciding to formally introduce himself. "You don't have to tell me your name if you don't want to, but... It would be nice. And if you don't want to say anything else after, that's fine. I'm not a great conversationalist anyway."

The blonde stays silent, and when Youngbin's ready to forget about talking to him, he responds.

"Juho."

His voice cracks as if his throat is dry, whether it be from not speaking or from being sick. Youngbin could assume it’s either of the two, but receiving an answer was shocking nonetheless.

"Oh. That's... Not what I was expecting."

Juho's eyebrows turn down, and he glares at the other. Youngbin desperately tries to correct his mistake. "I mean, because it's so normal, you know? Like, it's human. I was expecting like," would it be rude to click his tongue at him or imitate a dolphin's squeaking? Would it insult him? "A bit more..." _Do not say __animalistic_. "Oceanic."

Juho blinks at him, a hint of a smirk growing on his face. He wipes it away when Youngbin blushes. "Not that you're weird, or anything!" Youngbin keeps going, trying to fix what he believed to be a horrible error, which really wasn't that bad. But _fuck, _to him this was the end of the world. "But, you're just," Juho raises an eyebrow, daring him to continue. "Tail."

Juho blinks. He doesn't need to change his confused expression for Youngbin to officially lose it. He knew his name; it was real. This was _all_ real. Painfully, strikingly, staring you right in-your-face real.

"You don't have legs!" Youngbin's tone raises. It suddenly hits him that Juho is A. a mermaid, B. under his care, and C. legless. "You've got," he points at where he's guessing the other's tail is, "a _tail_!"

"Yeah.”

All Youngbin can do is stare at the other. Juho must decide he's tired of Youngbin's panic attack and ducks back underneath the water.

“Wait, wait come back.” Youngbin starts, pouting.

He doesn't. Youngbin rubs his palms over his eyes, crying out in confusion. "I have to be dreaming!" He falls back, looking up at the ceiling as he tries to figure out what’s happening.

Ten minutes later he's still laying on the edge of the pool. However, at this point he's finally realized he isn't dreaming and has calmed down significantly. Though, he does feel oddly tired. He stands up, stretching. Water splashes behind him, and he turns to glance at Juho, who's now suddenly at the edge of the pool again staring up at him with wide, worried eyes.

"I'll be back," Youngbin says, feeling as though he's talking to a child instead of a creature who would easily be able to overpower and kill him. "I'm just seeing what we have in the-" he pauses. "Actually, what do you eat?”

Juho looks at him questioningly.

"Whatever I can find," He starts starts, lips twitching up into a smirk again as he brings a hand back to card his unkempt hair out of his face. Youngbin is shocked that he's getting a fluent, over one word response. "Usually, pretty things like you…" His voice trails off, and he glances to the side before his eyes lock back onto Youngbin.

And now, Youngbin is shocked for another reason entirely. "You're joking."

Well... It's possible, at least to Youngbin. How else would nobody have figured out about their existence if they were killing everyone who got close enough to them? And there were so many missing persons cases that lead back to the ocean… Everything made sense, but not in the way Youngbin liked.

Youngbin takes a step back at the boy's silence, raising his hands up. "Well, I can't call someone for takeout for human parts, so you're kind of fucked there." He tries to make light of the situation, not realizing that the other could easily be lying to him in order to establish some form of dominance over Youngbin.

Juho blinks at him again, slowly dragging his gaze down from Youngbin's eyes to the rest of his body, sizing him up rather dramatically. It’s almost clumsy; he clearly didn’t know what he was doing, just going along with the lie he’d strung up and made the center of attention proudly.

"Shut up, I know you're lying."

"Positive?"

Youngbin swallows thickly, suddenly sweating though moments before he’d been shivering, finding it cold in the room because of the A/C. "Yeah. Yeah, I’m positive." He leaves the room, immediately pulling off his shirt to change into another one. It was too cold in the room to stay in a tee, he needed to find a sweater or something. "Fucking... He's lying. There is _no_ way."

He turns past the examination room, checking the floor to see how bad the blood that remains on it is. However, it's been wiped clean, probably by Jaeyoon. Youngbin stretches, walking out of the room and across the hall to the supply closet, the door rattling when he throws it open.

A sleeping bag, flashlight, and a pocket knife accompany Youngbin back to the room, along with his backpack which he slings across his shoulders. He couldn’t find a sweater, so he had angrily pulled his tee back on before grabbing the rest of his things. Juho, who's still leaning against the side, perks up at the sight of the other.

"So, I'm ordering food," Youngbin sets his things down, reaching into his bag to grab his phone, which he points at the other. "You can eat it or not, I recommend you do, but that's your choice."

They don't talk after Youngbin calls the nearest pizza place, or as he's setting up the sleeping bag near the edge of the pool. The only noise in the room, once again, comes from the filter.

Juho sinks back underneath the water when Youngbin leaves the room to grab the order from the front door, only popping his head back out when the brunette returns, hitting two of the light switches with his elbow as he passes them. The panel above the pool stays on, but the others shut off, leaving the room in an odd half-darkness, illuminating the pool and Juho in an eerie glow. Youngbin drops the box onto his sleeping bag, walking across the room to grab a towel.

He tosses it to the edge when he gets back, Juho catching it with one hand. "Dry your hands off before you eat."

The boy rolls his eyes, but he complies, cupping his cheeks while he rests his elbows on the floor, waiting for Youngbin.

"Here," he mumbles, pushing the box towards the space in between them as he sits down. "It's not," he motions towards himself, grimacing, "but you'll manage."

“Thanks.”

“Yeah!” Youngbin smiles, relief flooding his features when the other shows interest in the box. He reaches forward and grabs a piece of pizza, hesitantly biting into it as he stares back at Juho, who had looked up from the box to Youngbin with unblinking eyes.

Juho watches Youngbincautiously before hesitantly grabbing his own slice. When he bites into it his eyes widen, a shocked expression crossing his face.

Youngbin tries not to laugh at Juho's stunned expression when he takes his first bite. "What?"

"It's good," Juho bites into it again.

Youngbin throws his head back as he laughs, barely able to calm down after a minute of nonstop giggling. The look on Juho's face had been one of pure innocence, almost childlike in how starstruck he was.

He lifts up his phone, taking a quick picture of the other as he isn't looking. He immediately sends it to Jaeyoon, lips still turning up in the corners. He sets his half eaten slice of pizza in the empty end of the box, seeing Jaeyoon typingback a response instantly.

**You sent a photo!**

**JAEYOON:**

**he's so :( sweet look at that face**

**i'd squish his cheeks**

**squish his cheeks for me**

**ME:**

**Idk he told me he eats people**

**N** **ot ** **really ready to** ** get my hand bitten off, so I'll pass**

**JAEYOON:**

**huh**

**he told me earlier that they didn't eat people**

**ME:**

**WHEN WAS THIS**

**BECAUSE I HAVE BEEN**

**T E R R I F I E D **

**FOR THE LAST, ** **LIKE,** ** HOUR BECAUSE HE KEEPS STARING AT ME**

**JAEYOON: **

**he told me when kyunie was stitching up his side**

**oh, is that looking okay, btw?**

**i don't know how saltwater would affect that**

Youngbin sits forward, slowly sliding the box to the side. "Hey."

Juho gasps, leaning back and away from the other approaching him. He’d finished his pizza while Youngbin was on his phone, and hadn’t seemed to grab another piece. "What?" Caution floods his features.

The brunette frowns, kneeling on the edge of the pool. "Can I check your side?" He murmurs, cocking his head to the side. "Jaeyoon wants to make sure it's not infected."

"Is he here?" Juho perks up a bit, slowly coming back forward to rest underneath Youngbin on his side of the pool, setting his palms on the floor to pull himself up. Youngbin moves back to give him space.

"No," he shakes his head, "he isn't, he went home."

Juho's expression falls. "Oh." He drops back into the water. "Well, when he comes back, he can check."

"Juho, I’m not going to hurt you.”

“I don’t really believe that.” The other frowns, drawing away from the other, keeping a safe amount of distance between them as Youngbin sighs.

Slowly, Youngbin slides his legs into the water, fully prepared on seeing the other’s side to make sure the wound hadn’t begun bleeding through the bandage. “If I wanted to hurt you, don’t you think I would have already? We’ve been alone together for about an hour now.”

Juho shakes his head fervently, continuing to put distance between the both of them. “You’re lying.”

“I’m not,” Youngbin insists, stressing his next point calmly, “I want to make sure your side is okay.”

Juho doesn’t respond, so Youngbin takes the initiative to reach forward for the other slowly, on the verge of the floor and the pool.

Panic crosses Juho’s face when Youngbin’s fingers brush past his side, and the creature shouts in alarm as he lashes out, swatting Youngbin’s arm away. At the sudden movement, Youngbin loses his balance and falls forward, gasping when he hits the water.

He chokes on the salt, grabbing blindly for the edge of the pool in an attempt to steel himself. The pool was deep, at least thirty feet, and Youngbin wasn’t the greatest swimmer. When his fingers slide off of the edge of the pool, he panics, again struggling in an attempt to find it. He must look pathetic to Juho, whose current location is lost to Youngbin. When he realizes this, head dunked under the water as he blindly reaches upwards, he only grows more erratic, until finally he hits the surface again and he coughs.

Something wraps around his waist, pinning him to the wall of the pool. One of Youngbin’s hands finally meets the floor, and the other tries to push away whatever’s pinning him.

He opens his eyes the moment his palm makes quick, hard contact with Juho’s cheek, silencing a “calm down” that tries to flow past his lips. Youngbin freezes, feeling his grip on the wall slacken as Juho stills. Youngbin realizes slowly that Juho’s arm was holding him up, keeping his head above the water while keeping him in reach of the exit.

“I-”

Juho lets go of Youngbin, a hand shooting to his cheek to cradle the red, burning mark Youngbin had left behind. Disbelief shimmers in his eyes, and he stares incredulously at the other. “I didn’t-” Youngbin tries to defend himself, but Juho ignores him, ducking beneath the water and disappearing into the darkness below. Youngbin realizes he must have shut off the pool’s lower lights earlier, as there’s a black abyss underneath him.

Guiltily, he claws his way out of the pool, shoves the box of pizza to the side, and wraps himself in the towel that he’d brought out for Juho before. He drags his sleeping bag to the opposite side of the room, and soon after he hears his phone begin ringing from where he’d left it next to the flashlight and knife he’d brought back with him earlier. He goes back towards the pool to grab those items as well, answering the phone after it rings once more.

“_Hey_!” Inseong cheers, “_what’s going on?_”

Youngbin glances over at the pool, hoping to see the blonde looking up at him from the edge, but he’s met with nothing. The eerie glow of the pool looks worse when it appears empty. “Oh… Nothing really...”


	2. crest

Inseong doesn’t talk to Youngbin for long. It’s about some jacket that Inseong had found left behind as he and Sanghyuk were leaving their reception; red, white stripes, and definitely not Youngbin’s. Inseong just wanted to make sure, though, and doesn’t seem shocked when Youngbin denies having the jacket, and proceeds to talk about how whoever owned it had a poor taste in fashion. Their conversation is short lived, the timer on the call barely even ticking past five minutes when Youngbin hangs up. Guiltily, the brunette casts a stray look towards the pool, hoping that Juho would have resurfaced by the time his call ended. The other hadn’t, though, and Youngbin sighs as he sits down on his sleeping bag, texting Jaeyoon suddenly, and not expecting such a quick answer as he sees how late it is.

**ME:**

**i dont think i can stay here much longer.**

**JAEYOON: **

**im omw :D**

Youngbin lays back, placing his phone on his chest as he turns it off and waits patiently for Jaeyoon to come back and take over for him. When he speaks, his voice echoes off the empty walls, and the silence that follows after seems to be heightened by the pool filter that hums quietly, electronically, on the other end of the room. It reminds him that he won’t be receiving an answer, and that nothing he said or did would change that.

“I’m leaving. Jaeyoon’s coming to take my place.”

The room reminds Youngbin of a scene from a horror movie he’d watched recently. Dark, a blue haze the only thing seeming to be lighting any of the space in the room at all. It had been about an alien, or a ghost or something similar. He can barely remember; he’d been asleep for most of the film, having closed his eyes the moment it started on his TV. Maybe it had been about both and something else, but he wasn’t sure and didn’t care enough to rewatch it. 

He adds on a soft, “I’m sorry,” as he casts a sideways look at the pool. 

He doesn’t expect a response, and doesn’t hate that he doesn’t receive one. In all honesty, he didn’t deserve one in the slightest. He fucked up. This was all on him. 

Jaeyoon arrives soon after, and he must sense the tense atmosphere in the room as he comes to stand next to Youngbin. He doesn’t say anything, just places a hand on Youngbin’s shoulder as he sits up, looking out to the pool.

Youngbin stands, but Jaeyoon reaches down and grabs his hand to stop him from leaving. “Are you okay?”

Youngbin nods, too shameful to tell Jaeyoon why he and Juho were so distant from each other. “His name’s Juho.” Youngbin murmurs instead, crouching to grab his phone, leaving the rest of the objects for Jaeyoon in case he needed them. 

“He talked to you?”

“A bit.”

Youngbin leaves without another word, hating how empty his steps sound in the halls on his way out of the lab. The parking lot is cold, dark under the cover of the night. Youngbin can barely remember the wedding he’d been at before rushing to the lab, and is only reminded of it by the crumpled suit on the passenger seat of his car as he slides into the driver’s side. 

It doesn’t take him long to get home. Whether it be because he speeds down the lonely, desolate highway without anybody telling him to stop, or because he spaces out for the entire drive back as he thinks of Juho, he isn’t sure. Regardless, when he takes the exit from the highway and his car begins its usual route through his town, it’s only felt like five minutes.

He stops when he finally reaches his home, and pulls the keys out of the ignition of his car before he leans back against the seat. “Fuck…” He whispers, barely even saying the word as it’s instead pulled from his lips by the cold air in the vehicle. He hadn’t thought to put the heat on in the vehicle when he’d been driving. It’s as cold as the night outside, perhaps even colder, yet he doesn’t feel the sudden urge to exit the car. He’s numb to the feeling of the ice around him. “Fuck…”

Youngbin can barely even register what he’d seen, or who he’d interacted with that night. Above all, he can’t believe that he’d fucked up something that had only just begun. He sighs, throwing his head down against the steering wheel. “Fuck!”

After a moment of feeling the leather cover of his steering wheel against his forehead, Youngbin slides begrudgingly out of the car, shivering in the cold air when he finally feel it. The car door slams shut behind him. He trudges towards the house, unlocks his front door, and locks it behind himself after he’s inside, leaning against it for a moment. He presses his back against the wood, biting his lip as he tries to decide what he should do next, or how he should go about the situation he’d brought upon himself and the other. It was accidental, but it still terrified the other, and each time Youngbin remembers the look in Juho’s eyes he feels his heart twist. 

He tosses his keys onto the table next to the front door, and walks down the hall to his bedroom. He collapses onto his bed, groaning as he buries his face in the scratchy, new blanket he’d just bought earlier that week. He had redesigned his room for the third time when he bought it, but everything still looked bare to him. It was as if nobody lived there; no personal items laying about, or pictures hanging on the walls. The room could be staged, and he himself would probably believe it though he spent each night there. 

Youngbin peels off his soaked clothes, throwing them in a heap at the foot of his bed before he slides underneath his blankets. He shivers, pulling them tight around himself as he buries his face in his pillow. Hr was too tired to change into warmer clothes.

He barely sleeps. Each time he grows close to it, he shoots back up, clutching the blankets as something dangerous lurks in the back of his thoughts, only coming to power once he begins to slip back into unconsciousness. 

Whenever he breaks away from the clutches of the thoughts, he forgets what he’d been so afraid of, but he can feel it still clawing through his head as the thoughts attempt to take center stage. 

Finally able to lay down, and to wrestle the thoughts away, Youngbin slips into an uncomfortable, paralyzing sleep. Countlessly, he feels his body begging to wake up, but each time it’s refused and drowned. He forces himself to live inside of the nightmare to come, unwilling yet completely enforcing the decision.

_ Youngbin’s head is forced underneath the waves again, and he chokes on the saltwater that rushes painfully into his lungs as he foolishly tries to breathe. A hand curls around his throat, continuing to push him down further into the depths. He takes in yet another mouthful of the stinging, freezing water and coughs, continuing to filter the water through his lungs as he tries to struggle out of the grip keeping him down. The creatures around him boast gills, showing off that their own lungs would never fail them in such a situation. _

_ His throat is finally released by whoever had held him down prior, and he immediately breaks the surface, choking and spitting out as much water as he can in an attempt to clear his throat. He feels weak, legs becoming heavy as he finds himself unable to tread the water anymore.  _

_ Somebody wraps around him from behind, arms curling around his hips sweetly before their hand once again meets Youngbin’s neck, squeezing it almost playfully before shoving him underneath the choppy waves yet again, toying with his fate in their hands, taking the length of his life with careless consideration as they run and wear it thin between their fingers like a shred of weak cloth.  _

_ Youngbin knows it’s coming, and takes a sharp breath and holds it in when he’s forced under the water. His body trembles as his adrenaline begins to wear off and he can truly feel how cold the winter water is around his body. He’s worried he won’t last much longer, his eyes wide open to survey the beautiful darkness around himself. In the corners of his vision, a deep red begins to blossom like flowers. _

_ Instead of being released, he’s instead drawn back above the water, his arms flying back in an attempt to strike whoever holds him. He feels the water rush up in his throat, and he gags as he tries to spit it out, vomiting into the ocean. _

_ He hates how he leans back into the other when he feels their breath on his neck, warm and everything that the air and water around them isn’t. He can barely keep himself from pressing his bare back against the other’s chest, shivering in the cold. Their warmth makes up for their murder attempt; Youngbin can’t even think of breaking away. His legs have stopped moving, and he’s afraid if the other lets go of him, he’ll sink. _

_ Their hands stray from around his throat to around his hips once again. Youngbin gasps, squeezing his eyes shut as they hold him in the waves. He can’t feel any part of his body that lies beneath the surface of the water, and fears that it simply doesn’t exist anymore; that the space beneath him is simply void. _

_ They let go. _

Youngbin gasps, throwing the blankets off of himself as he’s finally able to wake himself up. His heart races irregularly fast, and he can  _ taste _ the saltwater in his throat and mouth even after he wakes up. It’s solid, choking him.

“Fuck,” he whimpers, rolling over to look at the wall besides his bed. In the dark, he sees something move, but knows it’s just the panic that makes a body jerk to life out of the shadows. “Fuck…” The word had become his favorite, he supposes, and he watches the body running around his room vanish once again into the darkness.

His breaths come out uneven, and he shivers in the cold air of the room as he pulls his knees to his chest. “What the fuck was that?” Nightmares were rare for Youngbin, especially ones that felt so  _ real _ . He shudders, still feeling the water wrapping evenly around his body.

A light filters in through his window, and he glances to see a car’s headlights pulling up next to his own vehicle in the driveway. He stills, grabbing the blankets before he pulls them up around himself. It was likely they were just turning around- his home was at the end of a dead end street, after all. Yet, if he was about to be murdered, whoever did it would  _ not _ be seeing his naked body beforehand. He’d go out with some sort of dignity, wrapped in cowardice as he plans to simply not fight for his life. He’s far too tired to even consider it. 

The car’s lights flicker out, and he hears a door slam. There’s silence for a moment before his front door opens.

_ Death _ . Youngbin nods, glancing to his closed bedroom door (which he doesn’t remember closing) as he awaits whoever had come to find him.

“Youngbin?”

He sighs, recognizing the voice immediately. He feels like an idiot. “In here,” he calls quietly, and he hears footsteps hurry down the hall towards his bedroom. The door’s thrown open a moment later, and Inseong walks over to the bed, crouching down next to it. “You didn’t answer my calls. And since when do you leave your door unlocked? You  _ always _ lock it. I’m scared that you’re becoming careless because I am.”

“I was sleeping.” Youngbin grumbles, but reaches a hand over to Inseong’s, which rests on the side of his bed. He opts to ignore the other half of his worries, and tries to play it off as if he’d just forgotten to lock it by flashing a soft, apologetic smile. Though, he remembers feeling the lock turn underneath his fingers. He squeezes it gently. “Sorry.”

Youngbin watches the shadow from before slide aimlessly around his walls, a pair of luminous eyes staring at him from wherever it strays. Inseong doesn’t seem to notice Youngbin following it around the room, and continues to berate the other.

Inseong scoffs. “Since when do you  _ sleep _ ?”

“Since work fucked me up,” Youngbin remarks, finally turning to look back at him, and Inseong frowns, standing up before lifting the blanket slightly. Youngbin forces his hand back, choking on his own words as he pins the blanket back down with his palm defensively. “I am  _ naked _ .”

“No you’re not.”

“Yes I am.”

“You don’t sleep naked.” Inseong raises his eyebrows. “You think it’s gross. Stop bullshitting. Stingy ass, share with me, I’m cold.” He tries to lift the blanket again, and Youngbin forces it down with his hand to repeat the previous attempt.

“Inseong-”

“-Are you ill?”

“What? No, I just didn’t want to change.”

Inseong purses his lips, turning away as he raises his eyebrows. “Slut.”

“Oh, fuck off.” Youngbin laughs, looking away. The shadows stare back. Inseong sits down above the blankets, laying back. “Hey, shouldn’t you be with Sanghyuk? You… Just got  _ married _ .” He points out, frowning. He doesn’t look away this time, watching the shadow stop moving next to his bedroom door.

“He’s out,” Inseong smiles, “just fell asleep the second we got home. I don’t blame him. Things got kind of crazy after you left.”

“Yeah?” Youngbin hums, turning over. “When’s the honeymoon?”

“Tomorrow morning.”

Youngbin panics, immediately pushing the other away. “Go home! It’s late, you need to be sleeping. Aren’t you leaving the country?”

Inseong smiles, waving his hands dismissively. “A plane to Tokyo is only about two hours, it’s fine. We’re already all packed, so don’t worry. I’ll sleep right when I go home, okay?” Youngbin pouts, and Inseong looks over at the other from where he lays next to him. “So, what happened with work after you left? We were all wondering.”

Youngbin doesn’t know how much he should tell Inseong about, but when he starts speaking he can’t stop himself. He tells the other  _ everything _ , going into great detail of every time he and Juho had interacted, up until the point when he’d woken up prior to Inseong’s visit. The shadows seem curious as well, consuming the room further in the darkness as they listen with great attention as Youngbin recounts the night.

Inseong only stares at him, wide eyes unblinking as he takes in all of his words when Youngbin finally finishes. “You’re joking, right?” He smiles, laughing nervously. “Things… Things like that don’t really exist, right?”

“He’s real.” Youngbin states, motioning to his clothes at the other end of his bed. “Grab my phone, shorts pocket.” Inseong obliges, fishing the other’s phone out of the mess of clothes before handing it to Youngbin. The brunette opens it, scrolls through his conversation with Jaeyoon for a minute, and pulls up the picture of Juho. “You can’t really see his tail from here, but…”

Inseong gasps, pouting. “He’s so cute,” he whines, “you’re lucky to be involved with something so cool…”

“I think I really fucked up,” Youngbin turns the phone, looking at the picture with an adoring look written on his face. Inseong smiles.

“He’ll know you didn’t mean it, just give it some time. You probably just shocked him, you were both freaked out, right?” Youngbin nods. Inseong continues. “Then, go in tomorrow and apologize. Things will be alright.”

“Thank you.” Youngbin whispers. Inseong nods, smiling. 

“Of course.”

Inseong doesn’t stay any longer, leaving soon after he offers his input to Youngbin. Youngbin watches him leave, and even after the front door shuts behind his friend, he still stares in that direction. He doesn’t know why, but as he closes his eyes, he watches the shadow run past the bedroom door, a solid form against the light of the hallway, a living and breathing figure, if only for a moment,  _ hopefully _ only for a moment, as it defies the rules of a simple shadow by disrupting the normal path of light.

* * *

Youngbin wakes up early the next morning, prepared yet nervous for the day ahead of himself. 

He takes his time getting ready, pulling on a new pair of sports shorts before covering them with sweats, a black tee tucked into them messily. He didn’t know where his coat had ended up from the last time he’d worn it, so he reluctantly settles on a jean jacket when he sees it hanging up in his closet. 

He brushes his hair and teeth quickly, and skips breakfast in hopes to get to the lab faster. 

The weather outside is nasty, gray clouds swirling angrily in the sky overhead while a painfully cold wind berates Youngbin’s skin the moment he steps out. He winces, running to his car before jumping into the driver’s seat, shoving his keys into the ignition swiftly before he jabs his finger against the button to initiate the heater. 

The air takes a moment to heat up, but once it does Youngbin sits back comfortably, beginning to drive. He tries to go as quickly as he can without breaking any speeding laws, anxiously tapping his fingers on the steering wheel. 

Youngbin’s thankful when he sees that the highway is, again, practically desolate. Few cars pass him on his own side of the road, and rarely one shoots by on the opposite side. It doesn’t take long for him to come to a familiar exit, and he takes it hesitantly, not exactly sure if he wants to already be so close to the lab.

Last night plays through his memories on repeat. The feeling of Juho’s skin underneath his palm, the shock and fear in his eyes as Youngbin finally realized what had happened… He shivers, trying to clear his head of the thought. He hates it, and desperately wants to apologize, but he’s terrified to. He’s sure Juho won’t forgive him. 

The lab isn’t far; Youngbin drives slower through the forest, chewing nervously on his bottom lip as he scans the road ahead of himself.

Only two minutes later Youngbin pulls into the parking lot, stopping his truck in one of the farthest spaces from the building. He isn’t ready to face the other. He doesn’t know what it is; the previous night had been an accident, yet every fiber in his body begs him not to get out of the car. He feels like something bad is about to happen, and the feeling only worsens when he unbuckles from the car and opens the door.

He steps out of the vehicle with a sudden burst of confidence exploding in his chest, yet moments later the feeling is killed. He shuts the door behind himself and trudges towards the lab, his head hung low as he tries to come up with what he’ll say.

The water nearby crashes violently against the shore, and it painfully reminds Youngbin of the dream he’d had the night before. He winces and quickens his pace towards the building, throwing open the door in front of himself eagerly to get away from the sea.

Somebody calls out a greeting to him from the main room, and when he walks into it he sees Youngkyun laying on the floor, surrounded by sketches and torn-out pages from his notebooks with messy writing scrawled across them in red ink. The brunette barely looks up to Youngbin, but greets him again, a soft “good morning” as he attempts to organize his notes. 

“What’s all this?” Youngbin murmurs, crouching down to examine the other’s work.

“Migration patterns… Just comparing from last year.”

The work is oddly normal considering that they have a mythical creature in the room next door. Youngbin appreciates it though, happy that at least one of the group was focused on the tasks at hand before they’d encountered Juho. “Which species?” Youngbin stands, craning his neck forward in an attempt to see the furthest sketches from himself. 

“Lobster.”

“Lame.”

“Hey,” Youngkyun frowns, pointing an accusatory finger at Youngbin, “watch that shit.” He sounds personally offended by the other’s word, and crosses his arms after dropping his finger. “Lobsters are very cool.”

Youngbin smirks. “Are they?”

“As a matter of fact, yeah. They are.” 

“Well, I hate to keep you from them, then…” Youngbin waves a hand, spinning on his heel to face the observation room. “Is Jaeyoon here?”

Youngkyun doesn’t answer. Youngbin takes his silence as a yes, and hesitantly walks into the next room, holding his breath as he hears Jaeyoon’s soft, honey voice drift off when the door opens. 

“Good morning,” the other smiles, sitting on the edge of the pool. Juho avoids any eye contact with Youngbin, lowering his gaze immediately when the other enters the room. 

“Morning…” Youngbin responds, completely ignoring Jaeyoon when he sees Juho. Jaeyoon stands, stretching. “Have you been here all night?”

“Since you left,” Jaeyoon hums, looking over to Juho, “he slept.”

“Lucky you,” Youngbin smiles faintly, and Juho meets his gaze for a moment before he looks away nervously, pursing his lips. Youngbin walks over to the edge of the pool, sitting down on the other side of Jaeyoon, using him as a border between himself and Juho. “Aren’t you tired, Jaeyoon?”

Being around Juho makes Youngbin’s heart race. He tries to avoid looking at him at all costs, but when Jaeyoon stands and steps away from the two, it becomes difficult. “I’m kinda sleepy,” he responds flatly, shrugging, “I’ll probably get going soon, if that’s okay.”

“What? No, yeah, that’s completely fine.” Youngbin nods. “You need to sleep, too.”

Jaeyoon spins on his heel, beginning to walk towards the door to the room. “I’m gonna grab some coffee, though. You want any?”

“I’m fine…”

Jaeyoon vanishes, and soon the air becomes thick with tension as Juho and Youngbin sit next to each other, separated by the distance Jaeyoon had left behind.

Youngbin turns to make sure that Juho’s still above the surface, and finds the other staring at him. He flushes, turning away quickly to avoid eye contact. In the other’s gaze, he’d seen the shadow from the night before, and tasted the saltwater from his dream with a nauseous flick of his tongue against his teeth, urging him not to vomit. 

“I’m sorry.” Juho starts suddenly, and Youngbin’s eyes widen. 

“No, what?” He looks over to the other, shaking his head. “ _ I’m _ the one who should be apologizing, why are you?”

Juho smiles, fake and bitter. “Because.”

“Because?”

He throws his head back, sighing. The smile never leaves his face, and his eyes slide over to rest on Youngbin as he begins to speak. “Because I’ve caused you so much trouble already.”

The look on his face makes Youngbin shiver. “What are you talking about?” He murmurs nervously, raising a hand to fidget with the collar of his shirt. He looks away, towards the tiled floor, and gasps when he feels a hand curl around his wrist. 

When he turns, Juho’s leaning over the edge of the pool next to himself, gripping his arm gently as he twists it to reveal a large, black handprint resting on the inside of Youngbin’s arm. The human gasps, inspecting it carefully before he turns to Juho. “What is this?”

“You don’t know?”

Youngbin shakes his head, and Juho frowns. “It’s a mark.”

“And what’s that?” Youngbin frowns, tearing his arm away from the other. Though, before the other can say anything else, he pulls his fingers down against his palms in a shy, hesitant manner. “Ah, wait, but let me apologize for last night…” The thought’s finally brought back to him painfully when he sees a small purple bruise hiding on the other’s cheek, and Juho shrugs.

“It’s fine, but who did you see last night after you left?” Juho ignores the apology, accepting it almost instantly to instead dwell on the odd handprint on Youngbin’s arm. He leans forward, bringing the other’s skin closer to his face as he examines the mark with a curious pair of eyes. 

“I… Nobody,” Youngbin hums, “I mean, a friend, but-”

“-Human friend?”

“Well, yeah.” Youngbin smiles, “You’re the only one I’ve spoken to who isn’t human that I know of.”

The other bites his lip, shaking his head slowly. “No, I’m not. I didn’t leave this,” he drops the other’s arm, and Youngbin pulls it into his lap gently, looking at the handprint himself, “and it reeks.”

“I’m sorry?”

“I’m not saying that  _ you _ stink, but  _ that  _ does.” Juho scrunches his face up, pointing to the mark. “You can’t smell it since you’re human.”

“You’re saying that there’s something else that-”

“-I mean, I don’t doubt it.” Juho cuts Youngbin off before he can even finish, and he grabs for the other’s arm again. “Let’s try to wash it off.”

Youngbin tries to argue, but he’s instead dragged to the edge of the pool by the other, and his arm is dunked under the water. Juho begins attempting to scrub off the mark, but his attempts prove pointless as each time Youngbin checks his arm, the mark is still there. It looks completely untouched, pitch black still with no fading or rubbing away of whatever it was that had stained his skin. His arm around it had turned red from the incessant rubbing, though. “What do you think it is?”

“Well, there’s other creatures, but…” Juho frowns, gently placing his hand against the mark on Youngbin’s skin. “Siren, maybe? Undine…” He shrugs. “Or, they’re like me.”

For a brief moment, Youngbin feels like there’s something he’s forgetting from the previous night, but he can’t remember much past Inseong leaving. He’d fallen asleep, but something else had happened… He sighs, angry with himself for forgetting. “What do you think it’s there for?”

“Honestly, I’m guessing someone was just curious about you,” Juho decides, pulling his hand away from Youngbin’s. “But I don’t know how they got so close without you noticing… You went straight home, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Are you sure you and your friend were the only ones inside?”

Youngbin pales, not having even thought that to have been marked, the other would have had to be inside of his home with him. His thoughts drift comfortably back to his nightmare, and he flinches. Juho notices the sudden jerk, and leans forward to place a supportive hand on the other’s for a brief moment. “I mean… I thought so.”

“I can’t help but think that this is my fault,” the other begins, frowning. “I feel like you’re susceptible to coming into contact with these things now because you’ve met me.”

“I don’t think that’s it,” Youngbin shakes his head, “I’m not hurt, and maybe this is just some weird coincidence and it’s not even anything to get worked up over.” He smiles, reaching down to run a hand through the other’s hair. Juho jumps with the sudden contact, but doesn’t pull or push Youngbin away. He simply grows used to it after a moment, and puts his head down on his arms in an embarrassed fashion as Youngbin continues the comforting motion. 

“Maybe…”

“You know he has legs, right?” Jaeyoon suddenly interrupts the two, and his sudden reappearance startles Youngbin to the point that he falls back, catching himself just before he collapses into the pool.

“You scared me!” He cries, and Jaeyoon smiles. 

“Good. You deserved it.”

“Why?”

“Dunno.” Jaeyoon takes a sip of the drink in his hands, and he sighs as he pulls the styrofoam away from his lips. “But Juho has legs.”

Raising a critical eyebrow, Youngbin stares at Jaeyoon. “Funny.” He glances at Juho. “I feel like you’re gonna offend him,” he notes to Jaeyoon, who scoffs. 

“I’m serious.”

“He’s right,” Juho murmurs, raising his head from where it’s resting on his arms to look up to Youngbin. “It just hurts really bad to change.”

It’s Youngbin’s turn to scoff. “You’re joking.”

“Serious.” The other grumbles, putting his head back down. “But I have to tear myself apart to even start the transformation process, so I won’t do it.”

The room around the three becomes quiet, and Jaeyoon yawns. “I wanna go to bed.”

Juho nods, and soon after Jaeyoon leaves to go home for the day. It leaves Juho and Youngbin alone once again, and Youngbin lays down on the side of the pool before turning towards the other. He raises a hand, allowing it to hover over Juho’s head as he hesitates, but he puts it down a moment later, deciding not to continue the motion from before.

“Tell me about yourself.” He hums, and Juho glances up at him, narrowing his eyes as if Youngbin’s attempting to trick him in some way. Sometimes his eyes would show a hint of distrust when he looked to Youngbin, but it would fade slowly and hesitantly into an expression of simple caution, as if part of him was holding back.

“Like… About what I am?”

“No, about you specifically.”

Juho frowns, sliding back from off of the floor. “Don’t want to.”

“What?” Youngbin sits up, watching as the other dips beneath the surface of the pool. “Hey-!” He cuts himself off when the other doesn’t resurface, and sighs as he stands up. “Then I’m leaving.”

“Wait, no,” Juho reaches out, grabbing Youngbin’s ankle weakly, “don’t leave me alone…”

Youngbin hums, pulling away before he sits down. “Then talk to me, or I’m gonna get bored and leave.” Juho nods quickly, eyes wide and pleading as he moves to lean on the side of the pool again.

“What do you want to know about me?”

“Anything you want to tell me,” Youngbin smiles, and Juho blushes, burying his face in his hands. 

“Um… I’m really not that interesting,” he whispers, seeming slightly unused to talking about himself. “I got lost when I was younger, and I’ve been alone since then…” He shrugs. “I met a few sailors, but they were few and far between. I really don’t know who or what I am, you know?” He puts his hands down, folding his arms before he rests his chin on them, staring up to Youngbin. “Now I’m here. Kind of freaked out, but I’m here.”

“Why are you freaked out?”

For a moment, Juho looks away, and a disbelieving look crosses his face. But when he turns back to Youngbin he smiles, a soft, nervous look in his eyes as he responds with a whisper. “Part of me has a feeling you guys aren’t gonna let me go.”

Youngbin frowns. “We would never keep you here if you didn’t want to be here. If you want to leave, just tell one of us.”

“Right…” The other whispers. “Well, what about you?”

“Huh? Oh, I’m leaving whenever.”

“No, stupid, I mean I want to know about you, too,” Juho leans forward slightly, widening his eyes. “I told you, so you have to tell me.”

Youngbin nods. “Okay, uh… I hate the water,” he starts, and Juho cocks his head to the side, raising an eyebrow. 

“Why?”

“I nearly drowned when I was a kid.” He responds quickly, waving a hand dismissively. “Don’t wanna talk about it. Um,” he leans back on his hands, looking up to the ceiling, “you know, you said you were boring, but your life seems much more interesting than mine…”

“Youngbin, trust me,” the way the other says his name makes Youngbin’s heart flutter, “you don’t bore me at all.”

“You don’t bore me, either.”

Juho smiles, hiding his face behind his hands again. “Don’t say things like that…” He laughs into his palms, peeking out at the other from between his fingertips. “I know I said it, but you shouldn’t.”

For a moment, Youngbin finds himself unable to look away from the other. He’s captivated by him, allured by the way he smiles and the deep tone of his voice; how it rumbles in his chest when he laughs. He bites his lip, turning away quickly when he can finally tear his gaze away from the other. “Juho..?”

“Yeah?”

Youngbin looks back, watches the other pull his hands away from his face. “I’m sorry.” He mumbles, sitting forward. “I’m really sorry about last night.” Juho frowns. “I just… I was freaked out, and when I turned I didn’t expect you to be there. I didn’t mean to hit you.”

“I know,” Juho smiles, “don’t worry. I’m not mad at you.”

Youngbin nods, sighing. “Still, I’m just really sorry.”

“Don’t be, it’s okay.”

The silence that fills the gap between them isn’t awkward or tense, as it had been earlier that morning. It’s simply there, just like the breath Youngbin takes. It simply exists in the room, calming and assuring that the two had heard everything that they’d wanted to from the other, and that they were content without useless words filling the gaps in their conversation. 

Youngbin leans back again, pulling his phone out of his pocket when he feels it buzz. It’s not an important notification, just a reminder that he needed to go to the store later that day. “Juho,” he starts, peering around the corner of his device at the other, who still lays idly on the edge of the pool.

“Yeah?”

“How bad does the transformation hurt?”

The other parts his lips, but shuts them a moment later, evaluating the pain in his head. He closes his eyes, opens them, and smiles. “Maybe like a six out of ten, why?”

Youngbin has a bad idea. An idea so bad that even thinking it makes his skin crawl, and the question of  _ what could go wrong? _ lingers in the back of his head as he tries to figure out if it’s even worth it to bring his idea to light. It’s dangerous, for himself and Juho, yet he can’t resist. “Do you want to leave with me later?”

The other’s eyes widen, and excitement plays behind his eyes as he examines the other carefully. “You’re serious? What’s the catch?”

“No catch, I just figured that you probably don’t want to be alone here tonight.”

“I…”

“You don’t have to,” Youngbin says suddenly, raising his hands, “if you don’t want to, just tell me. I seriously wouldn’t care.” He hides it, but he silently hopes that the other will accept his offer. 

“I want to.” Juho nods, smiling faintly. It doesn’t meet his eyes, but it’s completely genuine. It’s shy, revealing of the character he hid behind his gnashing, aggressive teeth. Youngbin begins to realize that Juho doesn’t have the personality of a monster that was used to hiding from humans in the depths of murky, pressurized ocean waters. He starts to notice the softness in the other’s gaze and features, and feels a twinge in his heart when he notes that the attitude he’d first experienced from Juho - the snarling, scratching, vicious creature, had been a disguise to protect himself from the beasts he must have grown up fearing.

He can only begin to imagine what Juho had thought of humans in his life before he’d encountered them. Polluting his home, destroying and hunting from it without care or conscience. Then, to wake up disoriented and bloodied, in an unfamiliar, human building with men standing around him… Youngbin, though he hadn’t taken part in scaring Juho into building up the persona he’d boasted during their first interaction.

“I’d really enjoy it,” Juho repeats, an excited look subdued in his eyes.

Relief floods Youngbin’s blood, but alongside it is a familiar tension, a familiar fear, and an even more familiar taste of saltwater choking his lungs and throat. “I’m glad.”

* * *

For the rest of the day, Youngbin helps Youngkyun sort and input his data into the computer in the main room. It’s grueling, and his eyes burn from staring at the other’s small, scribbled writing, trying to make sense of the nonsense Youngkyun had written. 

Youngkyun sits next to him on his laptop, and when Youngbin glances at the screen he sees a bright, colorful map. Red lines and curves trace the migration paths of the lobsters beautifully, clean and organized. Youngkyun had continuously prided himself on the work he’d done for the entirety of the time Youngbin had helped him, and the older didn’t mind it in the slightest. The younger had clearly spent countless hours on finding his data, and Youngbin feels that he should be proud of himself. If he wasn’t proud of his work, then what was the point?

He finally leans back, believing his work is done as he stares at the chart in front of himself. He’s unable to focus on any of the data on the table, the numbers and letters combining into some foreign script he can’t quite comprehend, and each time he comes close it jumbles itself once more. 

“I’m beat.” He finally announces, squeezing his eyes shut before he raises his hands to rub them roughly. “If I work any more, my brain will seriously melt.”

“I think I’m just about finished too,” Youngkyun hums, and Youngbin looks over at him only to see him leaning forward, clicking away on the computer, “but I still have finishing touches…”

Youngbin pushes his seat away from the desk, standing up. He stretches, biting back a yawn as he turns his head upwards towards the fluorescent lights on the ceiling. “I’m getting out of here; mind if I take Juho with me?”

It takes a moment for Youngkyun to respond, too engrossed with his task to bother listening completely to the older. “Yeah, yeah, whatever, go ahead…” His voice trails off, and he continues working tirelessly on the map. 

Youngbin smiles, walking away towards the observation room. The pool appears empty, but the moment Youngbin comes to stand beside it, he sees the water ripple nearby, and a curious pair of eyes break the surface. Juho comes to the side, smiling as he leans on the edge. “Are we going?”

Youngbin nods. “Let’s go, fish boy.”

Juho scrunches up his face with distaste. “That’s a bad nickname.” He drags himself onto the side of the pool, his tail dangling in the water for a moment before he pulls it up beside him. “Ah… Do you have clothes for me?”

“Why would you…” Youngbin’s words fade against the humming of the pool filter, and he turns away, cheeks flushing a deep red. “Yeah,” he turns away, walking back towards the door to the main room, “hold on.”

Juho waits patiently, still in the same position when Youngbin comes back with a handful of clothes that he’d been in when the human had left. “I just grabbed the first thing I saw from the closet, so…” He drops a pair of shorts and a loose, darkly colored jacket in front of the other. “It’ll work for a bit.”

“Okay.” The other’s voice is tentative; unsure. He bites his lip, laying back on the tiled floor as he looks up to the other. There’s a question in his eyes, but his lips only part slightly around it, unwilling to ask it completely. Youngbin smiles faintly, crouching down next to him. Juho closes his eyes, taking in a shuddering breath. “Look away.”

Youngbin hesitantly obliges, but has the urge to let his hand fold against the others. He lays his fingers atop Juho’s palm, and he immediately wraps his around them, his grip tight and nervous. Youngbin, unsure of what to do, just squeezes the other’s hand comfortingly. “I’m right here.”

“Okay.”

Youngbin hears the other gasp, and feels his fingers slacken before they tighten once again around his. He can’t bring himself to look, but he winces when he hears the sound of something tearing. Juho cries out, slamming his hand down onto the tiles painfully. Youngbin’s hand is dragged down with it, and his knuckles burn when they hit the floor. Youngbin looks over, only seeing blood on the other’s thighs. 

Thighs.

They’re covered in scales still, only turning more red with the blood running over them. It looks like it’s coming up through the scales, through the cracks between them before it drips down onto the floor. 

“Shit!” Youngbin reaches over, though he stills when he realizes he can’t help the other in the slightest. 

Juho wails, grabbing Youngbin’s arm with his free hand. His nails scratch his skin, and Youngbin bites his lip as he allows the other to squeeze his skin, tearing the flesh gently in small, pinprick red circles. “Youngbin,” he whimpers, and the brunette holds the other’s hand tighter, “Youngbin,” he’s breathless, eyes forced close as he tears himself apart. “Fuck…”

“It’s okay,” Youngbin whispers, looking around to see if there’s anything in the room he can use to wipe up the blood coating the other. There’s a towel pressed against one wall, and Youngbin breaks away from Juho to grab it. “I’ll be right back. I’m right here, I’ll be back.” He runs to grab the towel, and when he spins to look back to the other, rushing back after grabbing the lone towel, the other is sitting up slowly, breathing heavily as he looks to Youngbin.

He doesn’t move his legs. They’re soaked in blood, yet it’s just droplets that come from no open wounds. Youngbin walks quickly back to the other, gently draping the towel over his legs before he begins to dotingly dab up the blood. Juho lets out soft whimpers each time the other applies pressure to the new skin, biting back tears.

“You should have told me it hurt you this bad,” Youngbin hisses, continuing to swipe up the blood. Juho smiles, biting his lip.

“I couldn’t imagine being here all alone.”

When Youngbin pulls the towel away, he avoids looking at Juho until the other pulls his clothes on. His legs are no longer bloody, but still boast a red sheen as the irritated skin meets the air for the first time in who knows how long. “You’d go through all of that pain just to avoid being alone?”

“You have no idea what I’d go through.” Juho stares at the other with an expression void of any emotion, his eyes wide and unblinking. Youngbin shivers at the intensity of it. The void is filled, though, by the look of shyness that reminds Youngbin of the expression Juho had worn before he had left to help Youngkyun. “Thank you for helping me…” He mumbles. Youngbin pouts, reaching over to pinch the other’s cheek. Juho lets out a soft string of  _ ah _ s, raising a hand to place over Youngbin’s.

“Don’t thank me. It’s what friends do.”

“Friends?”

The word seems foreign on Juho’s tongue. Youngbin isn’t sure if the other simply hates being referred to as anything more than an acquaintance to Youngbin, or if he had genuinely never heard or used the word before. Regardless, Youngbin smiles, lowering his hand to grab onto Juho’s once again. “Yeah,” he nods, “friends.”

He leads Juho up, helping him gain his balance after he stands by allowing the blonde to lean heavily on his shoulder. His breath still comes out in uneven, ragged exhales, and his legs tremble. “It’s been a while.” He laughs quietly, head still on Youngbin’s shoulder though he’d regained his ability to stand within seconds of being upright.

Youngbin smiles. “Are you alright?”

“I’m fine.”

* * *

“We need to do something about your appearance.”

“Is that an insult?”

Juho leans back against Youngbin’s passenger seat, eyes wide and challengingly as he stares defiantly back at the other. Youngbin waves his hands quickly, defensively, as he parks the car in front of the grocery store. “No! Not at all,” he argues, tone low, “you just…” Youngbin smiles, reaching over to brush a hand through the other’s hair; blonde, slicked back from the water that still dries in it, “you look like you’ve been in the water for a while.”

“Well, I hate to break the news to you,” Juho quips, and Youngbin laughs quietly. Regardless, Juho turns and peers into the other’s backseat. “Do you have anything in here I could wear?”

Youngbin nods. “I think I have a jacket in the back somewhere.” Questioningly, the brunette turns to look at his passenger, “you seem like you know a lot more than you’re letting on.”

“Well I’m not an idiot,” Juho raises his eyebrows, smirking, “you think I’m just some helpless thing that washed up and needed saving, huh?”

There’s a defensive tone in front of his words, as if he was self conscious. Youngbin shakes his head, eyes widening. “No! I just… Didn’t expect you to take so easily to things up here.” Juho seems happy with this response, and watches Youngbin unbuckle himself from the car. “Can you-” he’s cut off by the sound of the other’s buckle coming undone, and he smiles faintly as he slips out of the car. He walks around to the other side, opens Juho’s door, and helps him down onto the pavement though he doesn’t need any help in the slightest.

He opens the back door, rummaging around through the various bags and miscellaneous objects he had over time thrown into the back of his truck. “I know there’s one back here…” He murmurs to nobody in particular, feeling awkward as he searches through the mess until he finally pulls out a black sweatshirt. 

He turns to hand it to Juho, victorious in his stance until he looks to the other, deflating instantly. “You’re so tall…” He’d been bent over before, still groggy and pained from the process of changing, but now he was standing straight up and attentive. 

“I am?” Juho looks down at himself, grinning after he looks to the other. “That’s okay, right?”

“What? Yeah, it’s fine, why wouldn’t it be?” Youngbin ends up sliding the jacket over the other’s arms; he pushes the hood up when a gust of wind crosses over both of them, still standing idly next to the truck in the far end of a near desolate parking lot. Juho scrunches his eyes shut uncomfortably when it hits them, but he says nothing. Youngbin reaches down and zips up the rest of the jacket, leaving it undone near the top. Juho fidgets awkwardly when Youngbin takes a step back, and the human sighs before he interlocks their hands. “Let’s go.”

“Holding my hand? So bold, not scared I’ll eat you anymore?”

Youngbin feels a sudden heat rise into his cheeks, and he turns away quickly to avoid the other seeing. “You need to stop saying things like that to me…” He murmurs, and Juho giggles, adjusting his grip on the human’s hand.

“You’re just fun to tease,” the blonde snickers, stepping a bit closer to Youngbin when the wind howls past them again, “your face gets all red.”

“Don’t look.” Youngbin whines, only turning back to the other once they’re inside the store. The aisles are practically empty, deserted save for the few lonesome customers mulling about. Juho seems interested in everything all at once, his head turning quickly to take in everything around himself before he tones down his surprise, hiding it behind the mask he wore so well. “What? Bet you don’t have things like this underwater.”

Juho scoffs, unlocking his hand from Youngbin’s when the other reaches for a cart. Youngbin doesn’t know how it happens, but Juho ends up between himself and the cart, his arms around the other as he walks aimlessly through the store. “You doubt us?”

“A bit,” Youngbin muses, and Juho hums in agreement.

“Me too.”

Youngbin smiles, continuing to walk until he hits the produce aisle. He whistles softly, forgetting about the creature between his arms as he decides on which groceries he should grab and which he could skip until next week. “What should I make tonight?” He muses, and Juho peers over the cart to eye the lettuce that Youngbin reaches for.

“You guys eat plants? That’s fucked.”

“I-” Youngbin doesn’t try to argue, just drops the lettuce dejectedly into the cart before he moves on to the fruits on the other side of the stand. “I see you don’t want salad.”

They shop in near silence for a while, leaving the produce aisle after Youngbin grabs a bag of apples. Juho begins leaning back as they walk, causing Youngbin to struggle to walk, attempting to hold the other up while at the same time trying to navigate the cart. “You’re making this difficult,” he notes, to which the other hums out an agreement yet stays pressed against Youngbin, his clear intent on not moving evident. Youngbin scoffs, but begins not minding the other’s antics as he continues on through the store, grabbing various packages and boxes as he cuts through the aisles.

Youngbin sighs, yawning as he picks up a box of pasta to skim the back for the ingredients. 

“What are you looking at?”

“Not you.”

“Cute!” Juho frowns, leaning forward. “So cute.”

Youngbin smirks, throwing the box unceremoniously in the cart before he returns his arms to lock Juho into place. Juho continues to frown, but it soon turns into a pout as he turns to look at Youngbin. 

“My legs hurt.”

“Want to sit in the cart?”

Juho’s eyes widen, and he nods with extreme enthusiasm. Youngbin reaches forward and pushes the groceries to one side of the cart, leaning back to wrap his arms around Juho’s waist before he lifts him up, surprised at how light the other was without his tail. 

“Don’t drop me.” Juho growls, reaching down to grab Youngbin’s arms. The human laughs, helping the other into the cart before he lets go. 

“I wouldn’t dream of it,” he teases, walking back over to the other side of the cart before he begins pushing it. He notices Juho rubbing his palm over one of his legs, and worries about how the other feels. “Are you okay?”

“Just sore,” Juho responds quickly, dismissively. Youngbin nods, biting his lip as he debates on continuing to prod the other with his questions. Juho turns, smiling faintly as he watches the other push the cart. “Something on your mind?”

“How’s your side?”

Juho looks away, shrugging. “It’s definitely felt better. Honestly, I barely feel it right now because of my legs.” 

Again, Youngbin nods, deciding not to ask anything else. He scans the aisles, looks back to the cart, and purses his lips in thought. “I think we might have everything.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah,” Youngbin nods, before quickly shaking his head, “no, no I lied.” He turns the cart roughly to the side, his steps determined as he walks towards the other end of the store, back to the produce, “we need tomatoes.”

“Who?”

“Don’t ask.”

Juho is shocked when Youngbin picks up a round, soft red fruit when they arrive back at the produce section of the store. He stares at it with curious eyes, yet he says nothing as Youngbin grabs another, bagging them gently before he sets them on the merman’s lap. 

When Youngbin looks up from setting down the bag, he catches a glimpse of something black swaying gently across the room from him. A man with dark hair and a long black coat stands idly, flipping a package of some organic food or whatnot aimlessly in his hands, investigating it precariously. Youngbin can’t bring himself to look away, too invested with the other to even dare to. 

He looks like a model, with long legs and shining, dangling earrings that make him appear much more important than he must be. In reality, he’s a nobody, shopping at the same small, family-owned supermarket he was. He didn’t look like he was in a rush, and he seemed to know where everything he needed was; he lived in the area. Youngbin would pat himself on the back for his quick deduction skills if it wouldn’t earn him a strange look from the man sitting behind him in his cart. He’s a nobody, yet his aura appears so much greater. His presence swallows the room the moment Youngbin notices him, covering him in an intense, interested darkness that creeps closer to the both of them, prying eyes wanting to know everything about the man across the room.

When he looks up, meeting Youngbin’s gaze, the world stops. 

It’s only for a brief second, but Youngbin feels it throw him forward, skewing his balance as it halts. The man is  _ that _ powerful; just his gaze stops the Earth’s rotation in seconds. Even if he didn’t mean to, he did so immediately. His smile is what causes it to resume, and he shyly tucks a stray strand of hair behind his ear as he looks away from Youngbin, biting his lip before he turns his attention back to his shopping. 

Youngbin stands with a frozen tongue, and his feet stick to the ground as if they’re glued down. He’s unable to say or do anything as the other walks away, disappearing behind an aisle, and likely slips out of Youngbin’s life forever.

When Juho speaks from behind him, he jumps. He had genuinely forgotten about the other until that very moment, as if every fiber in his body had been snapped to attention and controlled by the dark haired stranger that had once stood across the produce section of the store from Youngbin.

“What’s going on?”

“Nothing.” Youngbin shakes his head, returning to his end of the cart before he begins pushing it through the store, peeking around every so often to see if he can catch a glimpse of the other in one of the aisles they pass. Though, he never does, and he and Juho arrive at the checkout line much quicker than he’d like.

Youngbin helps Juho out of the cart, and the two load up their few groceries on the conveyor belt for the cashier to ring out. Youngbin stands awkwardly in front of the card scanner, unable to easily make conversation with the clerk as he had done so many times before. He was completely and utterly distracted now, his mind occupied with thoughts and questions that he felt uncomfortable for having. All the stranger had to do was smile, and Youngbin had become a mess. His heart beats rapidly in his chest, and it only seems to slow down when he glances to Juho, whose entire presence seems calming. 

The stranger was a storm, captivating and frightening, whereas Juho was a lake with early morning light filtering through the surface; calm, mellow. 

“Fifty two dollars even,” the clerk’s voice snaps Youngbin back to reality, and the brunette nods as he scans his card. He hadn’t realized that they had all been waiting on him to pay for a minute, and apologizes profusely when he figures out what he’d done. 

Juho follows Youngbin closely when they leave, carrying only one bag while Youngbin took three. He was worried about Juho. When he’d seen him walking out of the store, he’d had a severe limp and a pained look written across his face clearly. Youngbin had him take one of his arms, just in case he collapsed, and Juho didn’t argue as he looped his arm around the human’s.

“That man…” Juho murmurs when the two finally stop walking next to the car, “he’s looking at you funny.”

Youngbin’s heart swells. “Where?” He follows Juho’s gaze to the edge of the building they’d just exited, and his excitement immediately falters. “Let’s get in the car now,” Youngbin urges the other towards the passenger side, gaze still locked with that of the man with scraggly hair and psychotic eyes staring at the two from where he stands beside the building. “We don’t have time for that.”

“Do you know him?”

“Nope.”

Juho slides into the car after Youngbin answers his question, and Youngbin does the same on the opposite side after he tosses his bags in the backseat. When Juho had brought up a man staring at him, Youngbin had grown hopeful that the stranger from before, with the storms brewing in his eyes, had made his way once again to Youngbin. Though, when he’d looked up with an excited glimmer in his eyes and only seen the man with stringy, horribly bleached orange hair, his heart had dropped.

“Do you live nearby?”

Youngbin slides the keys into the ignition of the car, and he glances to Juho and smiles. “Not really, but the drive isn’t bad. You can sleep if you want to, you might wake up feeling better.”

Hesitantly, Juho agrees, and leans back in the passenger seat before he turns to Youngbin. “Thank you.”

Youngbin smiles, throwing the car into reverse before beginning to exit the parking lot. The truck jerks slightly when he puts it into drive when they’re out of the parking space. “Why are you thanking me?” 

“Just because,” Juho laughs quietly, turning to look out the window, “just because…” He repeats, voice and tone low. Youngbin glances over at him, turning his attention begrudgingly back to the road after. 

The blonde beside him looks exhausted, head thrown back against the window as he stares out at the world around him aimlessly. Youngbin can’t imagine how the other must have been feeling in the strange new place, but he acted as if he was indifferent to it.  _ Used _ to it, almost, as he seems bored with everything around. 

He falls asleep soon after, his head knocking lightly on the glass beside him. Youngbin makes sure he drives slowly, carefully avoiding bumps in the road to keep Juho from waking up.

The silence is deafening.

* * *

“You live here alone?”

Juho stares wide eyed at the home around himself, looking around from where he stands in the entryway. Youngbin laughs, kicking off his shoes before he steps in front of Juho, leading the other into the kitchen. “All alone,” he confirms the other’s suspicions, and Juho only gasps.

“You must get so lonely!” He reaches forward, grabbing the other’s hand. Youngbin continues to laugh, turning to look at the other with an endeared look on his face. 

“I don’t get lonely at all,” Youngbin hums, “I kinda like the quiet.”

“I hate it,” Juho whines, “how could you possibly like it? It’s just so empty.”

Youngbin stops in the kitchen, setting down the bags he’d had previously looped on his arm. He yawns, rifling through them quickly to separate packages from those he can keep out from those he should put in the fridge. Juho watches with fascination; Youngbin works quickly, and puts everything away at record speed. “I don’t see it like that,” Youngbin continues the conversation when he shuts the refrigerator door. “I work with people all day. Jaeyoon’s a handful, you know?” Juho smiles faintly. “And Seokwoo… He’s so dramatic sometimes.”

“But you love them.”

“Of course I do,” Youngbin smiles, and Juho fidgets awkwardly in front of the other. “Where’d that question come from?”

Juho shrugs, pursing his lips slightly. He looks back to the other. “My legs hurt.”

“Oh! Fuck, yeah,” Youngbin nods, reaching forward to grab Juho’s hand. It’s become a subconscious act at this point; Juho needs something, and Youngbin leads it to him immediately. The other’s hand is soft, and Youngbin gently rubs his fingertip against the other’s nails. “Here,” he takes the other into the next room, letting him lay down on the couch, “I’ll grab you some ice.”

Juho reaches out for Youngbin when he tries to leave, grabbing his wrist gently. “Wait,” when Youngbin turns, Juho’s eyes widen as if he hadn’t expected the other’s sudden attention, “uhm… It’s okay,” he smiles faintly, “you don’t have to.”

“Doesn’t it hurt?” Youngbin frowns, glancing at the other’s legs. They’re still red, but less than before. “It’s no trouble, honest.”

Juho pouts, his grip light on the other’s skin, fingertips barely touching Youngbin’s wrist when the other begins to pull away. Though, when Juho’s hand doesn’t follow, Youngbin stops moving away. “I’m okay,” Juho assures, and suddenly he grabs Youngbin’s arm again, sitting up before pulling him closer. The brunette gasps, stumbling before he catches himself. 

“Juho,” his tone is warning, but the other has a mischievous glint in his eyes. “What are you doing?”

“You should stay.”

“I didn’t plan on leaving.”

“That’s good.” Juho nods, shifting slightly before pulling Youngbin down fully. The human fumbles for a grip on the edge of the couch as Juho lays them down. He wraps an arm around Youngbin’s shoulders, the blonde locking him against himself tightly. Though, it’s light enough for Youngbin to pull away if he chose to. The brunette shifts for a moment, but stays put against the other, his face burning red. “Make it up to me for last night.”

It takes a moment for Youngbin to remember the previous night; today had been hectic enough. Juho hums as he speaks, resting his head on Youngbin’s back. “For leaving so suddenly.”

“I didn’t want to hurt you again.”

“The only thing that hurt me was you not being there.”

Youngbin’s shocked by the softness in the other’s tone, the gentle way his words are muffled by his breath. He whispers them, as if he can’t bare to admit what he’s saying. “You…” Youngbin mumbles, turning to look over his shoulder at the other, “you’re not serious.”

“Why wouldn’t I be serious?”

“You didn’t trust me at all last night.”

Youngbin seems to remember the mark on his arm, and when he raises it to look at the black handprint, he sees that it’s faded significantly. It barely shows against his skin. Juho sighs, burying his face in the other’s shirt. “I just… I don’t like humans that much. You’re nice, though.”

“But you liked Jaeyoon…”

“Jaeyoon jumped into freezing water to pull me up and stop my bleeding, of course I liked him. I owed him.” Juho scoffs. He pulls his arms away from around Youngbin. “You were the one who tried to talk to me. I guess I just didn’t see it until you were gone…”

“You like me?” Youngbin teases, and he hears Juho grumble something under his breath before he responds with a louder voice.

“Absolutely not.”


	3. swash; uprush

At some point that night, Youngbin manages to escape from Juho’s arms and the soft lock they’d had around him. He ends up in his kitchen, blindly preparing a meal he’d never made before, but turns out better than he’d expected when he finally finishes. Steamed vegetables, fish that’s very slightly overcooked (but Juho wouldn’t be able to tell - right?)... Youngbin feels powerful, like he’d been through Hell’s Kitchen and lived to tell the tale. Even if the fish in the pan before him looks jarred, he’s proud of his cooking.

Youngbin reaches up towards the cupboard above the stove, noisily pulling out two plates before setting them besides him on the counter. The ceramic clinks against the slate, the plate shuddering before it stills and silence once again fills the home. Silence, in actuality, is an exaggeration. The kitchen is filled with noise, yet Youngbin had become so accustomed to it that he didn’t register it in the slightest. The pan in front of him sizzles, and the refrigerator behind him hums electronically. The sink, having had sprung a leak recently, drips water quietly into a bowl he’d positioned underneath the pipe to hold off the water until he could get around to fixing it. 

He fits his fingers around the pan’s handle, lifting it before expertly sliding one half of the fish onto one plate and the other half onto the other. Personally, he hated fish, but he knows that Juho must feel differently. So, he shrugs it off and decides that for the night, he’d hate it just a bit less.

He sets the pan in the sink, turning on the faucet to wash any residual oil off of the inside of it. He flicks the faucet off, and a moment later returns to the stove to deposit the steamed vegetables equally onto each plate as well. The next pan clangs on top of the first in the sink, recklessly thrown in over it. Youngbin carries the plates to the living room, the silverware he’d set on the edges of them teetering dangerously on the cusp of falling. Luckily, neither sets do, and Juho looks up to Youngbin when his plate is set on his lap. 

Juho had been leafing through an old photo book that Youngbin had left him. Most pictures are of him and Inseong, some have Sanghyuk, some have Jaeyoon. Juho can probably only recognize three people in the photographs, but he acts as if he knows them all.

“Thank you,” he mumbles, closing the book gently before setting it beside him on the arm of the couch. Youngbin sits down in the space next to him, setting his plate on his legs. Juho watches Youngbin cut a small piece off of the fish, mimicking him exactly. 

Youngbin tries not to laugh, but Juho has such a sheer look of concentration on his face that Youngbin can’t help but bite back a smile. The other glances up at him, face reddening. “What?”

“Nothing.”

“You’re staring at me.”

“I’m not staring at you.”

“Liar.”

“I am not.”

Juho looks away, spearing the chunk of fish expertly before bringing it to his mouth. He chews on it lightly, as if he doesn’t know what to expect, but he looks back to Youngbin a moment later. “Oh,” he exclaims quietly, nodding, “it’s good.”

“Is it?” Youngbin’s eyes widen, and he takes his own piece to his tongue. He tries not to recoil, just nods in a false agreement. “I’m glad; I don’t cook fish often.”

“I wouldn’t be able to tell,” Juho hums. Youngbin smiles. Juho looks back over to the book before reaching over to grab it, flipping it open before turning the pages quickly. “Hey, who is this?”

Youngbin leans over, and Juho holds the book open on a page with only two pictures, pasted one atop the other. In the top one is Inseong and Chanhee, both looking towards the camera from the backseat of a cramped car; underneath that is Youngbin and Sanghyuk. The latter pictures had been taken on a vacation to the city the group had taken earlier the prior year. In the background, Youngbin can faintly see snow littering the ground of the park they’d been in. He remembers how cold it was on that morning.

The other’s finger hovers above Sanghyuk, and Youngbin looks to him curiously. “My friend Sanghyuk; how come?”

“No reason,” Juho shuts the book again, putting it back on the arm of the couch with a distracted look in his eyes. “I just felt like I’d seen him before somewhere.”

Youngbin nods, leaning forward to place his plate on the floor. “Sometimes I get that.”

“Yeah?” Juho follows Youngbin’s lead, setting his own plate on the floor after taking the last bit of fish on his plate between his teeth. His silence is Youngbin’s cue to continue, and the human does hesitantly, leaning back.

“Sure. I mean, sometimes you just see people you swear you’ve met before. You don’t remember where, but they’re just there, you know? You know them from somewhere.”

A moment of elongated silence later, Juho turns to look curiously at Youngbin. “Sometimes I feel that way about you.”

Youngbin nods, his gaze running down the other slowly before it jumps back up to his eyes. A part of him finds the other eerily familiar as well, now that he had two legs. He brushes it off as his mind playing tricks on him, though. “You look familiar, too.”

“Do you believe in past lives?”

“Not really.”

Juho leaves it at that, nodding as he leans back against the other. He closes his eyes, sighing quietly with content. Youngbin adjusts his arm around the other’s shoulders, letting his head fall atop the other’s as he stares blankly into the room in front of them. 

The silence is too much. Before, it had been welcome between the two, but Youngbin suddenly can’t take it. It makes him think, makes his imagination run wild over countless thoughts that he can barely make sense of. One of said thoughts he’d silenced depicted him and Juho closer on the couch, arms entangled and breathing heavily. 

The thought is sudden and unwelcome. It makes Youngbin shudder, and so he slips his arm off of the other and stands up, grabbing their dishes before bringing them into the kitchen to set in the sink. He stands alone in the quiet, listening to the busted faucet as he grips the edge of the ceramic sink and sucks in a short, curt breath.  _ What the  _ fuck _ is wrong with you? _

Juho looks up to Youngbin curiously when he comes back into the room, and the other tentatively crosses his arms, but drops them a moment later after figuring he must look cold and upset. Instead, he rubs the back of his neck sheepishly, gaze darting everywhere except onto Juho. “I’m probably gonna go take a shower, do you want to take one before or after me?”

The other thinks for a brief moment before standing up, stepping into Youngbin’s line of vision. When the aforementioned attempts to look away, Juho cups his cheeks and grins, forcing the other to look him square in the eyes. “What’s your problem?”

“I don’t have a problem.” Youngbin’s tone harsher than what he means for it to be, but Juho doesn’t seem phased. He smirks, pulling on the other’s skin playfully to bother him. Youngbin’s heart races at their close proximity when Juho takes a step forward, so he takes one backwards to try and keep the space between them the same. Juho counters it with another forward, and they continue with their retreat and advance until Youngbin’s heel hits the wall and he ends up locked in place. “Juho, knock it off.”

“Knock what off?” The other  _ has _ to know what he’s doing. There’s no way he doesn’t. Youngbin turns his head to the side when Juho’s hands fall onto his shoulders, and he gasps when he feels the other’s breath warm on his neck. “After, I guess.” Juho hums, and Youngbin feels him collapse on top of him a moment later, unable to support himself through the laughing fit he suddenly launches into.

Youngbin flushes, catching the other before he falls. “What’s up with you!?” He grumbles, dragging the other back to the couch before throwing him down on top of it. Juho shakes his head, continuing to laugh until he can manage to take a breath to calm himself slightly. 

“Your face…” He whispers, choking once again on his laughter as Youngbin stares at him in disbelief. “You just,” he gasps, finally beginning to calm down as he looks up at the other, “I’m sorry,” he smiles, “you just looked so serious, it was funny when you jumped.”

Defensively, Youngbin crosses his arms again. “I didn’t jump.”

“Yes, you did.”

Youngbin turns, dropping his arms. “Did not.”

“Did too.”

He leaves the room, walking into his bedroom to grab a change of clothes before walking back down the hall, stopping next to the bathroom door. “Did not.”

Before Juho can answer directly to him, Youngbin walks into the bathroom and shuts the door behind himself. Though, he still hears Juho faintly call a “did too!” from where Youngbin had left him in the living room.

Leaning against the bathroom door, Youngbin whispers out a hesitant “did not,” before shaking his head and peeling his shirt off. 

* * *

Youngbin hears the water stop running in the bathroom as he finishes making up the coach for Juho. He’d brought the other his own comforter, one of his own pillows, and a change of clothes that currently the other was likely pulling on. 

A moment later the bathroom door opens, and Youngbin tries not to turn to look at the other, biting his lip. He couldn’t get over his thoughts from earlier that night. It wasn’t that he hated the idea of the other, it was that he could only imagine how horrible he’d feel if their situations were reversed. Besides, Juho wasn’t even  _ human _ , how could a relationship like that even work out?

_ Relationship. _ Youngbin cringes at the word. 

He feels a pair of arms snake around his waist, and he jumps at the sudden contact. “Fuck!” 

“Do I scare you that much?” Juho hums, his chin resting on Youngbin’s shoulder. “You did all this for me?”

“It’s not that much.”

“Still.” Juho says. “Thank you.”

Youngbin turns to look at him, freezing when his eyes catch the sudden shift in the other’s appearance. “Y-your hair…” Youngbin stutters, turning to fully look at the other before raising a hand, brushing it through what had once been blonde strands. Now, his fingers stray through light pink tresses, soaked from the shower. Youngbin pulls his hand away, expecting some form of dye residue to stay attached to his fingers, but nothing remains. “It’s pink.”

“It is?” Juho peers up through his eyelashes, as if he’d be able to see it, but drops his gaze back to Youngbin. “I didn’t notice.”

“How did it…” Youngbin’s voice trails off, and he continues to ruffle the other’s hair, scoffing in disbelief. “It just changed?”

It wasn’t the strangest thing he’d seen from the other; Hell, he’d been there when the other’s legs had been torn from what was once a tail. He just wasn’t prepared for a sudden change this time, and he can only stare at the new color until Juho grows tired of the attention.

The other brings his hands up, clasping them around Youngbin’s before dragging them down, holding them in front of his chest. “As much as I love the petting, you’ve got to stop.”

Youngbin squints. “How the  _ fuck _ did it just change like that?”

“Don’t know. It does that sometimes.” Juho sounds tired suddenly, and he moves to sit on the couch. He keeps one hand locked around one of Youngbin’s, and he holds it as he looks up to the other.  
“It changes.” The question becomes a statement when Youngbin’s voice fills with his own disbelief. “You’re fucking with me.”

“I’m not,” Juho yawns, waving a hand in front of his face dismissively. “I’m tired,” he whines, voice pitching up suddenly. Youngbin feels his face get hot, and he nods as he breaks his hand away from the other’s. 

“I’ll let you sleep, then.” Youngbin smiles, taking a step back. Juho doesn’t chase after him,and Youngbin feels a sudden twinge in his heart when he realizes it. The other simply nods, laying back against the couch as he watches the human leave. 

Youngbin retires to his own bedroom, falling onto his bed only to stare up at the ceiling in silent contemplation. Something about Juho’s silence and willingness to let the other leave unnerved him. Before, he’d been so hesitant, so gentle in asking for Youngbin to stay. He’d held onto him and refused to let him go.

Youngbin doesn’t feel like he’ll fall asleep any time soon. He watches the darkness swirl around him aimlessly, unfocused in his line of vision so severely that for a moment Youngbin believes it’s sentient. 

He doesn’t sleep so much as drift in between reality and his subconscious. He’s never fully asleep, but rarely fully awake as well. Youngbin’s caught in between, sometimes looking up at his ceiling and other times being choked underneath the water ashe was in his dreams the night prior. Though it’s unpleasant, he can’t force himself to snap out of the dream. It holds him hostage when it can, the tendrils of it snapping when he wakes up briefly before falling asleep once again. 

Eventually Youngbin forces himself to stay awake, sitting up to avoid being dragged back down by the soft, tempting voice of sleep. It’s thick and sticky, holding him down when he ends up falling into it, but when he manages to escape, still clinging to him weakly, strands connecting him to a calmer, warmer place that invites him quietly. 

Youngbin leaves his bedroom, walking into the kitchen through the darkness that enveloped his house to grab a glass. He fills it with water, shuts off the faucet, and listens to it leak as he stands in the shadows, taking a slow sip from the glass as he looks around idly. Part of him wants to check on Juho, but another part of him knows he’d likely end up waking the other up, and didn’t want to risk it. 

Though, Youngbin decides to check on the other anyway after he thinks he sees something vanish into the darkness. “Juho?” He whispers, setting his glass on the counter before walking into the void he knows is his living room. The darkness is alive, again, moving and shifting as his eyes attempt to adjust to it. The curtains on the windows above the couch had been drawn shut, and Youngbin feels a shiver crawl down his back when he realizes he hadn’t been the one to shut them.

“Youngbin?”

The brunette kneels next to the couch, feeling Juho reach out for him in the dark. Youngbin lets him hold onto his shoulder, and reaches up gently to still his shaking hand. “What’s wrong, Jjuong?”

The nickname is sudden, ripping past Youngbin’s lips before he can think twice. Juho sits stunned for a minute, and through the inky blackness Youngbin watches confusion pass over his eyes. Something about the name had reminded Juho of something, whether he remembered or not. It drudged something up in him, and the moment he regains his composure he flings his arms around Youngbin and holds onto him tight, shaking.

“Hey,” Youngbin coos, wrapping his arms around the other’s waist before lifting him up, sliding onto the couch beside him. He positions Juho’s legs over his own, and the other stays leaned forward to hold onto him. “Hey, what’s going on?”

Juho whimpers something against Youngbin’s shoulder, and the human pulls back slightly, before lifting a hand to brush through the other’s hair. It had dried and become much softer, and Youngbin runs his fingers back and forth through it in an attempt to calm the other. “I can’t hear you,” he whispers softly, murmuring against the other’s cheek as he pulls him closer. “What’s wrong?”

“Something was here,” Juho whispers, and Youngbin pulls away before reaching backwards for the lamp beside the couch. The room fills with a soft, golden light when he flicks it on, and Youngbin freezes when he sees bruises littering Juho’s neck vaguely in the shape of a hand print. It immediately reminds him of the mark that had begun fading on his own arm. “It…” Juho’s hand raises to his throat, fingers brushing against the blackening spots, “Youngbin…” His voice cracks, and he chokes on what Youngbin guesses is a sob that he refuses to let go of. He hides his tears, biting back another sob as the other inspects the bruises.

“Fuck.”  Youngbin draws the other into his chest immediately, holding onto him tightly as he looks around the home. Juho crumbles against him, hands weak and shaking as they grip the back of Youngbin's shirt tightly. “Did you see them?”

“It.”

“It?”

Juho swallows down another sob, gasping for breath after a moment of attempting to keep his cries silent by holding the air in his lungs. Youngbin bites his lip, running his fingers over the other's back in the shape of a circle, hoping it soothes the other, even if it's slightly. After another moment of quieting his whimpers, Juho whispers out his response.

“It was a siren.”


	4. swash; backwash

Youngbin takes Juho back to the lab in the early hours of the morning, suddenly well aware of how dangerous the situation had become. Juho had talked the entire drive back - recounted each and every rumor he’d heard of sirens. Guardians of the sea’s laws, and the greatest defender of its murky waters. They sunk ships for the sheer pleasure of it, consuming human lives underneath the waters for the thrill. Youngbin had felt a pang of fear strike his heart with every word the other said, wrapped in the indigo darkness of the early hours of the morning.

The ocean looks angry when the car stops in the parking lot, the waves washing over the sands possessively. Youngbin feels oddly drawn to it, but holds back the desire to walk down to the beach from the parking lot, and instead grabs Juho’s hand and pulls him inside the lab quickly. 

They don’t question why the front door remains unlocked, or why it swings open under Youngbin’s touch as if it had been waiting for them. He makes sure to lock it behind himself though, the keys for the lab having been on his keyring since the day he’d started working for Jaeyoon. In reality, he and Jaeyoon had the same set of skills and education, but Jaeyoon had more experience, and so he was the head of the lab while Youngbin was underneath him. They worked for an unnamed corporation that rarely even contacted them, only seemed to pay them and share important information with them while taking their findings to report to other marine biologists across the globe.

Youngbin had always thought the job was too good to be true, but never had the heart to question it. He worries that if he brings up the absurdity of it, he would lose it. 

Juho walks closely to Youngbin, his steps falling close in line behind him. The echoes of their footfalls on the tiled floor are the same, the same sound shouting back at them from the empty walls. “It’s quiet here,” he notes, and Youngbin nods in agreement. “Are you gonna leave?”

“I don’t know.” Youngbin murmurs, leading the other back to the observation room, the pool filter humming welcomingly. It’s the only other sound Youngbin’s heard in the lab, and leaves him nervous. The hand around Juho’s throat darkens, the black beginning to fade into view in some spots of the print. “I might want to go to the library and do some research.”

“Isn’t it closed?”

Youngbin reaches into his pocket and fishes for his phone, pulling it out after a moment. “Umm…” The time reads 3:24AM, and he nods. “But only until four. They open soon.”

Juho seems nervous, but nods as he peels his shirt off, kneeling on the side of the pool. “Is there anything I can help you with while you’re still here, then? Before you go?” He’s trying to prolong their time together, and Youngbin nods. 

He turns away while Juho pulls off the rest of the clothes Youngbin had leant him, and only turns back when he hears the water splash up onto the side of the pool. Juho surfaces a moment later, watching Youngbin from the edge of the pool as the human begins questioning him. “What does it want with us?” Youngbin sits down in front of the other, dropping his hands atop his crossed legs absently.

“I don’t know.” Juho mumbles, leaning forward on his elbows to get closer to Youngbin. “I guess I can’t help you with that.”

“It’s okay.” Youngbin murmurs, smiling at the other. The other’s hair is red now that it’s wet, but the strands that dry steadily in the cold air above the water become pink as the water drips down off of them. “Hey, how’s your side?”

Juho seems taken aback by the question, and turns to look at the injury on the side of his body, the slash just beneath his ribs that had bled down to the floor when Youngbin had first met him. “It’s…” He purses his lips, inspecting it more carefully as he takes his finger and runs it along the skin he hadn’t rebandaged after showering at Youngbin’s house. “It’s still kinda sensitive, but it should be better in a few days.”

Youngbin nods, and begins to stand up. Juho seems hesitant, parting his lips before shutting them, his teeth clicking quietly together as he realizes that his words would be better left unsaid. Youngbin clears his throat, shoving his hands into his pockets as he glances down to the other. He feels bad for leaving, but knows that the lab is the safest place for Juho. Besides, he didn’t want Jaeyoon to worry if he came back to the lab and saw that Juho was just  _ gone _ . “I’m gonna go, but Seokwoo’s coming in about an hour to do some cleaning.”

It had been Youngbin’s turn to clean the week before, and it was Seokwoo’s turn after him. He knew that the younger would end up coming an hour early so he could leave sooner, but by the time he left Jaeyoon and Youngkyun would already have arrived for the day. 

Juho doesn’t say anything, again, so Youngbin continues the conversation that begins to become one sided. “I’ll come back tonight and stay, okay? I’ll bring dinner. You won’t be alone for long; maybe you should try to get some more sleep. It’s been a weird morning.”

The other nods, and silently dips beneath the surface. Youngbin doesn’t miss the worried glint in his eyes, or the way his heartbeat quickens ever so slightly when he catches longing in the other’s gaze as well.

Youngbin bites his lip, turns, and leaves the lab as quickly as he can.

* * *

The library is busy for four in the morning. Well, not  _ busy _ , but oddly populated. There’s at least three people inside, not including the obviously exhausted teenager behind the front desk, and not including Youngbin.

There’s a dark, ominous feeling residing in the shelves when Youngbin begins to investigate them, looking for anything that may help him in his current situation. He didn’t want to ask the worker there for help; he looked tired and Youngbin would feel embarrassed for needing help finding a book about a mermaid. 

Youngbin strays into an aisle regarding mythology, the spines of the books becoming worn and yellowed from what he guesses is miscare. There’s a fine layer of dust over them, showing proudly that nobody had touched the books in an achingly long time. Youngbin begins to brush them off, investigating the names more carefully. 

He ends up unsure of what to grab, so he takes whatever seems useful. Eventually, what’s useful becomes what has a green or blue cover, and Youngbin’s back where he started when he realizes that everything he’d grabbed is probably useless to him. Regardless, he walks from the section of the library with tall, overwhelmingly large bookshelves to a quieter section with soft benches and tables. 

He collapses into one of the many seats surrounding a large, empty table. The lamp sitting atop it in the center glows golden, leaving soft looking rings surrounding it on the smooth oak. Youngbin places the books down on top of it, yawning as he reaches for the first before beginning to leaf through it.

The first book is useless to him, so he moves onto the second, followed by the third, and by the end of the pile he’s come away with nothing that can help him. Youngbin tiredly collects the books from where they’d been scattered in front of him, and walks dejectedly back towards where he’d pulled them from. 

After putting them back hopefully in the right empty spaces on the shelves, Youngbin pulls another set of books down into his arms, deciding to start with the top left of the highest shelf just to work his way down. He’d been tired, but each new book he grabbed sparked a new energy within himself. He isn’t sure why; the task of studying was far less enticing than he felt he was making it out to be, but he can’t help but keep feeling the excitement rise within himself. 

He begins to walk back towards the table, adjusting the hefty stack of books in his arms, when he knocks into somebody leaving an aisle. He hadn’t seen them leaving through the books piled high in front of his face, but sees them once they both go shooting to the floor, books crashing around them hazardously. 

“Oh, fuck, I’m sorry,” he starts, sitting up. His words and apologies catch in his throat, though, when he reaches over to help whoever he’d crashed into up to their feet. 

The eyes of a twisting, cold storm look up to him, and underneath their piercing gaze is a hesitant smile. “Sorry,” he murmurs, his voice ringing gently throughout the space, “I should have seen you coming out.”

Youngbin shakes his head, but it’s all he can manage to do. The other laughs nervously, casting Youngbin a curious gaze as he sits up, helping to collect the books that had landed closer to himself. 

The storm watches him as he moves, lips parted softly as he pushes the books towards Youngbin. “Are… You okay?” He raises a hand, brushing a strand of hair behind his ear as he eyes Youngbin cautiously. 

The brunette snaps out of the daze he’d found himself locked in, nodding quickly. “Yeah, yeah, I’m sorry.” He laughs slightly, an embarrassed hand reaching out to grab the books the stranger had stacked up neatly for him. A few still remain spread about Youngbin, but he reaches down and adds them to the pile easily. “I just wasn’t expecting it.”

“Me neither,” the other agrees, standing up before offering his hand to Youngbin as he had to him moments before. “It’s pretty early to be here,” the storm notes, reaching down to pick up half of the stack of books. It’s a silent, curious question of self-invitation. Youngbin accepts it when he picks up the other half and leads the stranger back to his table, and the two sit down. Curiously, the storm opens one of the books and flips through it. 

Youngbin smiles, shrugging as he reaches for his own book, opening it up softly as to not damage the already worn pages further. “I don’t get much time off,” he states simply, not wanting to go into detail. The other nods, continuing to leaf through the book idly. “You were at the grocery store yesterday, right?” 

“I was..? Oh!” The other looks up quickly, the storm in his eyes violent and lethal. It throws Youngbin off, makes his skin crawl as he expects the other to be angry at him for some reason he isn’t sure of. “You were with the guy in the cart,” he notes, nodding slightly after looking at Youngbin, confirming that he was the same person.

“My name’s Youngbin,” the brunette smiles, and the other grins back.

“I’m Taeyang.”

It’s ironic to Youngbin that the man who looks like the embodiment of a deadly hurricane is named after the sun. “Taeyang,” Youngbin repeats, nodding to himself before returning his attention to the book in front of himself, “huh…”

The other begins reading the book from Youngbin’s stack that he’d taken, pursing his lips in concentration as he skims over the pages. “Are you researching something?”

“Yeah, is it that obvious?” Youngbin quips, and Taeyang lets out a quiet laugh. 

“Well, what is it?” Taeyang hums, closing the book after a moment. Youngbin glances up to him, smiling. There’s something about Taeyang he feels he can trust, and so he does.

“Sirens or mermaids, or things like that.” It’s all he’s willing to share, but it’s enough for Taeyang. The other’s curiosity is piqued, and he pushes the book to the side before looking to Youngbin. Something serious crosses his face for a moment, but it fades when Youngbin just seems to notice it.

“I might be able to help you a bit.”

“Yeah?” Youngbin’s breath hitches. “Well, w hat do you know?”

Taeyang checks his nails before shrugging, the serious expression he’d worn before drowned underneath the disinterest in his motions. “You gonna pay me for what I know?” At the shock that crosses Youngbin’s face, he giggles. “I’m just kidding! I took a class on mythology in school, and since I lived so close to the ocean back then I paid closer attention when we talked about that sort of thing. What are you looking for exactly? I might have an answer or two.”

Youngbin can’t help but notice how lucky it was that he’d run into the other. He wonders if it’s truly coincidence, but shrugs off his caution hesitantly. It couldn’t be  _ that _ strange, right?

Though, he begins to realize that there’s an odd familiarity he feels towards Taeyang. Juho’s words from the night prior leave an impression on him, and he’s stuck wondering just where he’d seen Taeyang before. “Yeah,” he nods, “I guess… Anything you know would be great.” Youngbin feels almost apologetic, oddly, for leaving the subject so broad. Taeyang doesn’t seem to mind, and begins telling him everything he can. 

Youngbin, however, feels he’s dancing around something. Dangerously close to the verge of stepping into it as he weaves his words carefully around Youngbin, laying some points on thick and harsh while others are soft and misty, unclear but definite in their own ways.

The two are different; mermaids and sirens, says Taeyang. The aforementioned is difficult to find, the hidden pearl at the bottom of the ocean that rarely comes to the surface. The latter, however, was a cursed species. They drew in humans as the curse commanded, hunting and killing them mercilessly. Youngbin winces at the words.

Taeyang’s last point makes Youngbin’s pulse jump, makes his heart pound against his ribs violently. He hangs onto every word, listening with bated breath as Taeyang finishes speaking, only daring to breathe after the words escape his lips.

_ There are few pieces from the original lore that regard this, but it’s been speculated that sirens would often mark mermaids as belonging to them, and that anybody who dared to get between the two would be killed in a violent, watery death. _

The words don’t have an affect on Taeyang like they do to Youngbin, and the other continues on idly, before finally stopping a minute or so later. “Was any of that helpful?”

Youngbin plays off of his fear, pretending it isn’t truly there. “They taught you all that in school?”

Taeyang grows a bit defensive. He laughs nervously. “It was a year long class.”

“I don’t doubt it.”

Both of them are hiding something. Youngbin feels it in the air between them, how it shifts with electricity each time one of them moves even slightly. Taeyang’s gaze shifts around Youngbin, almost as if he’s analyzing the brunette.

Taeyang looks away, ebony hair falling in front of his eyes when he looks down towards the table. He’s wearing the same coat from the supermarket the day before, and the same dangling earrings. Youngbin still feels the same overpowering presence the other carries with him though they’d become fast mutuals at the table in the corner of the library. 

Whether he knows it or not, Taeyang draws every bit of attention to himself. Everything, whether he wants it to or not, revolves around him. Youngbin doesn’t know what he even finds so enticing about the other, but he can’t help but get lost in looking at him. Taeyang finally looks back up, noticing the other’s undivided attention on him, and he snickers quietly. 

“Want to get out of here?”

* * *

Taeyang has a tattoo of a starfish on his hip. 

From the intense, intimate last handful of hours Youngbin had spent with him, it’s one of the few details of the other that he remembers. The soft, yet still jagged lines that made up its body, resting comfortably on top of Taeyang’s skin.

Youngbin can sense something is different with Taeyang. He can’t quite place his finger on it, but there’s something about the ebony haired boy that leaves him hanging on the verge of wanting  _ more _ . 

Taeyang sighs softly, his breath sweeping across Youngbin’s throat. The man shivers, adjusting his arms around the other’s shoulders. 

Something’s very different with Taeyang. Youngbin feels it in the other’s gentle touch, which runs circles over his chest while his heart runs marathons around thoughts of what the other had just done to him.

Youngbin feels like he’s looking through a stranger’s eyes when he turns towards Taeyang. The other looks back to him curiously, batting his eyelashes innocently as if he hadn’t spent the last two hours wrapped up in the sheets of Youngbin’s bed underneath a stranger. The storm was strangely willing when it was overpowered, Youngbin thinks comically.

“Yeah?” He murmurs, before he places a soft kiss to Youngbin’s jaw, leaving a trail of them down to his collarbone by the gentle touch of his lips. Youngbin bites his lip, turning to look away. Taeyang pulls away, laughing quietly to himself before he sits up, the blankets sliding down to hang over his hips loosely. Youngbin has to force himself not to follow the slope of the soft cloth downward. “Can I use your shower?”

“Yeah, yeah,” Youngbin nods quickly, jumping up from the bed to avoid ending up underneath Taeyang’s spell again. The other pouts, obviously having been expecting more, but nonetheless slips out from the bed to collect his clothes from the other’s floor. 

Youngbin slides a pair of sweats on, idly tying the string of them as he leads Taeyang to the bathroom. When Taeyang passes him, whispering a quiet thank you, his hand strays down and slips against Youngbin’s thigh. The brunette’s eyes widen and he takes a quick step back, earning a quiet snicker from Taeyang before he enters the bathroom and shuts the door behind himself.

He begins to plan his week as he tries to focus on anything  _ but _ the man in the shower, which he hears sputter to life soon after he walks away from the bathroom. It was Wednesday; he didn’t have any plans until that weekend, when he’d go to Chanhee’s art thing with Inseong and Sanghyuk. He figures he’ll bring Youngkyun; knowing both of the two of his younger friends are sad, desperate and shy, he’d take matters into his own hands. So; until that weekend, Youngbin was boring. Which was normal, he was used to that, but he wishes he had  _ something _ to focus on other than Taeyang.

Youngbin walks back to his bedroom, pulling the sheets and blankets from his bed violently, throwing them to the floor in a messy heap. He begins to realize how fucking  _ insane _ this scenario is; especially since it happened to him. Youngbin lived like a fucking loser. He went to work, came home, watched TV, and went to bed. His social life was close to nonexistent, especially when Inseong was away, which was often since he left the country for his job at least once a month. He was  _ not _ the type to take pretty boys home and let them use his shower. 

He sits down on the edge of his stripped bed, mulling over the morning’s events in his head. Why had he brought Taeyang home? It doesn’t make sense to him; there’s no reason he can think of that lead him to bring a stranger home.

But, on the other hand, Youngbin’s never been with anybody better. Where there’s regret, there’s also satisfaction, and he hesitates as he considers what to do next. The shower turns off, and Youngbin reaches back to grab his phone. 

He decides to bring Taeyang back to the library, or wherever he requested. Then, he’d come home and take a quick shower before heading back to the lab. 

Taeyang walks back towards the bedroom, standing in the doorway before nervously scuffing the toe of his boot against the floor. His fingers rub absently over one of his thighs, as if he’d pinched the skin beneath his jeans somehow. He already has his coat on, as well as the long black boots he’d been wearing at the library. “So…” He coughs awkwardly, gaze darting around the room. 

“Where do you want a ride to?” Youngbin smiles, before realizing how harsh the words sound. “God, I mean…” He shakes his head, and Taeyang waves him off. 

“Anywhere, really,” Taeyang hums, watching as Youngbin stands to grab a shirt from his dresser. “Maybe back at the library?”

“Sure, yeah,” Youngbin pulls the shirt on before he leaves the room, Taeyang following him to the door. “Library it is.” He grabs his jacket from the hook next to the door, slips his sneakers on, and leaves the house.

* * *

Youngbin thinks back curiously on the last moments he’d spent with Taeyang. The drive to the library had been silent and awkward, the quiet between them thick and difficult to breathe through. A knife probably wouldn’t even be able to cut through the tensity of the air inside the vehicle. 

When Taeyang had gotten out, the cold air washing over the two from the opened door, he leaned over to press a sharp kiss to Youngbin’s jawline again. Before pulling away, though, he whispered something that Youngbin can’t even begin to make sense of. 

_ “It’s getting cold; make sure you don’t get caught up in it. We’ll be leaving soon.” _

By  _ we _ , Taeyang hadn’t meant he and Youngbin. The brunette could tell from how after he’d just left the vehicle and walked inside the library, not even casting the other a second glance, or as little as a thank you for the ride. Youngbin was slightly bitter over that last fact as he left the library and went to the gas station before the highway to fill his tank, angrily grumbling to himself as he filled his tank. 

He gets home soon after, not ashamed to admit he’d been speeding down the highway to get home faster. It was a cold afternoon, and he couldn’t shake the feeling of the other on his skin. He wanted to get in the shower quickly and then get to the lab, anxious to see Juho.

Something felt wrong.

The more he thinks about it, the more unreal the scene felt.  _ He _ had brought home a handsome stranger from the library, who had just so happened to know  _ everything _ he’d wanted to know about an obscure mythological creature.

Well, he can't act surprised, but _fuck_.

Youngbin feels the realization hit him the moment he walks through the front door, the shadows in the home seeming to finally be just that once again; shadows. He didn’t give them a second thought now, didn’t see something dipping through them. 

Well, it had felt obvious by this point, but now it was pushing on the borderline of excessive. Honestly, Youngbin feels like an idiot for expecting that this could be anything else; what from the black hand print around Juho’s neck to the shadows dancing inside his home just the day before, all to the various ocean themed tattoos that crossed Taeyang’s bare body.

A black scale sits on his bathroom counter, and underneath it lays a heart drawn with something red and sticky. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> we cant pretend we're shocked w/ this one lets just leave it at youngbins stupid and impulsive and very easily entranced by sirens
> 
> I HAVENT WRITTEN AN ENDING NOTE IN SO LONG :((( thats so sad wtf hi hello i hope ur enjoying this fic so far please lmk what youre thinking if u want to <3  
fun drinking game; take a shot every time i say 'the other', have the setting as the ocean or city, or just in general say something stupid thinking it constitutes as funny yes this applies to all fics im going to get you fucking TANKED (elise does not condone underage drinking if you are a minor and unable to drink please do not listen to me i am just a fool, clown, jester, etc.)  
ANYWAYYYY, this fics getting close to the end kinda... thats scary huh. probably not ur probably like "ok whatever shut up let me leave" but <3 i love u  
SO! if you have any questions or concerns or anything else youd like to say i.e. elise shut up, my cc and twt will be linked below <3  
have a good day/night! please always stay happy, i love u so much :((((. <333333 ALSO HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! lets hope i finally get a brain and better writing skills in 2020 amen [windows shut down noise].  
FR though im very thankful that youre reading this :( so thank you, i know my writings kinda tired and everythings kinda [windows error sound effect] but im really grateful that youre here :( i love you 
> 
> twt: twitter.com/blossomfic  
cc: curiouscat.me/blossomfic  
carrd: floret.carrd.co


	5. saltwater intoxication

“Jaeyoon,” Youngbin hisses, dropping his phone down onto the counter as he pulls off his shirt. Jaeyoon hums, his voice ringing out around the bathroom as Youngbin struggles out of his clothes.

“_ What _?”

“I need you to tell Juho something for me.”

“_ I’m literally sitting in a Dunkin’ Donuts parking lot contemplating my placement in the universe right now, I don’t think I’m your man for that _.”

Youngbin sighs, reaching over to hang up the phone before dialing another number. Jaeyoon had proven useless to him. The new attempted call drops after the third ring, and Youngbin feels his eye twitch from the annoyance coursing through him. “Why would you help me?” He grumbles, recalling the number again. And, again, it drops after the third ring.

He continues jamming his thumb against the green call button until the other finally answers. “Seokwoo, fucking Christ, I need to talk to Juho.”

“_ You’re interrupting my cleaning. _”

“I know, I’m sorry,” Youngbin wraps a towel around his waist and grabs his phone before leaving the bathroom, walking quickly to his room to grab a change of clothes, “but this is really important. Can you please let me talk to Juho?”

There’s a muffled sound on the other side of the phone, but Youngbin hears a door open and water splash distantly afterwards. It only takes another few moments before somebody’s speaking to the brunette again. “_ Youngbin _?”

“Juho!” Youngbin sighs, feeling an immediate relief when he hears the other’s gentle voice. _ He’s okay _. “Can Seokwoo hear us right now?”

“_ No… He walked away. _ ” Juho mumbles. “ _ What’s wrong? You sound really weird…” _

Youngbin wants to say nothing. From the evident concern in Juho’s tone, he wants to tell the other not to worry and that things were okay and would remain okay. But, he knows that they’re not and likely will not be okay again. He sets his phone down on his bed and walks over to his dresser, opening the drawer with shaking hands to grab a change of clothes. “Um,” he starts, his breath shaking when he takes it in and blows it out. “Well, I found our siren.”

“_ Really? Well, what happened? _”

“I think he threatened me.”

The line goes silent, and Youngbin pulls on his clothes nervously. “I’m coming down there now, I’ll see you soon okay? We’ll figure this out, Juho.”

“_ Be safe _.”

Youngbin nods, hanging up the phone hesitantly after he realizes that the other was done talking. He leaves his room silently, forgetting his phone on his bed as he hurries to his car. He grabs his coat on the way, grimacing in the cold air that blows against him when he steps outside. 

It’s colder now than it had been. In the air, minuscule snowflakes dart around, melting the moment they hit the ground. Youngbin’s breath fogs the air in front of his lips, and he rushes to his car as he attempts to slide his coat on. 

Though, with his shaking arms, he can barely even manage to slip the sleeves on over himself. He opens his car door hurriedly before jumping inside, digging for his keys in his coat pocket before he starts the car.

A storm begins brewing in the distance, hanging in the clouds ominously. They’re almost black, swirling angrily together as they brew up the worst weather they possibly can. Snow, ice, and whatever else the cold conjures up swirl angrily inside them, ready to come down at a moment’s notice.

Youngbin feels he’s ready to front it, and pulls out of his driveway before speeding down the road.

* * *

The moment Youngbin steps into the lab, his eyes are locked onto the sight of Juho sitting on a rolling chair, pointing to something in one of Youngkyun’s sketchbooks. The aforementioned leans over the arm of the chair, nodding as the man in front of him murmurs something under his breath for only the brunette to hear.

“We need to go.” Youngbin starts, walking into the room before stuffing his hands into his pockets. Juho recoils, dropping the book into his lap before raising his hands to cover his mouth.

“You… Fuck, Youngbin,” he chokes on his words, shaking his head, “you smell like him.”

“Like who?” Youngkyun raises his head, curious eyes latching onto Youngbin. “Are you guys hiding things from me? Come on, you know I'm naturally a curious person.”

“I need to talk to Juho _ alone _ .” Youngbin snaps, and Youngkyun takes a step back. Youngbin _ never _ spoke up like that. Juho’s eyes widen, turning to look back to Youngkyun. The younger brunette looks confused, but he turns and storms out of the room, obviously annoyed by the older’s sudden outburst. 

The moment the two of them are left alone in the room, Youngbin reaches forward to grab Juho’s hand. “I don’t know what the fuck to do, Juho.”

Juho opens his mouth to respond, but when he tries to speak all he can manage to let out is a soft, pained whimper. Youngbin gasps, crouching down in front of the other before squeezing his hand a bit tighter. “Hey, hey, what’s wrong?”

“Let go.” Juho’s voice quivers, and he tears his hand out of Youngbin’s wavering grip. His eyes fill with tears, and he blinks them back painfully when he looks up to the brunette. “Why?”

“Why…” Youngbin’s going to question the other, but he’s only able to stare in shock when he watches the roots of Juho’s hair darken, the strands losing the bright, happy pink that had appeared just the night before in favor of a deep black that sets in almost immediately. “Juho?”

The other murmurs something inaudible before falling forward, his head crashing gently against Youngbin’s shoulder. Youngbin tenses, hands shooting up instinctively to rest on Juho’s sides to avoid him falling off of the chair entirely, which isn’t far from happening. His body’s completely limp; Youngbin’s the only thing keeping him upright. 

“He charmed you,” Juho murmurs, head lolling to the side before he attempts to look up to Youngbin. His forehead knocks against the other’s chin lightly, pushing Youngbin’s head ever so slightly to the side, “didn’t he?” He inhales softly, sighing gently against Youngbin’s neck. “It smells better now,” he murmurs as an afterthought, but Youngbin chooses to ignore it after a moment of deliberation.

“Well…” Youngbin feels guilty. He can only remember Taeyang’s body underneath him, his lips swollen from the way he’d been biting them to draw Youngbin in further. It feels wrong now, especially with Juho sitting so close, reminding Youngbin of what he’d felt just the night before towards the anomaly. “Yes?”

Juho nods, exhaustion seeping into his motions. He slides forward, the chair rolling backwards as his body pitches against Youngbin’s. The brunette tries to catch him, but Juho’s knees slam against the tiles just seconds before he can be caught by the worried human in front of him. 

Youngbin follows him down to the ground from his prior crouches position, pulling Juho into his arms protectively. “What’s wrong? Juho, please talk to me.”

“If he charmed you,” Juho’s voice is suddenly colder, his tone distant as his head rolls backwards. His eyes are closed, a grimace crossing his face slowly. “Then he had to have claimed you, too.”

“Well,” Youngbin smiles nervously, feeling his heart drop with anxiety, “that’s a bad thing?”

“Youngbin, he can do whatever he wants to you without repercussions. There’s so many sirens living among your kind, he could kill you and be let go by those who work with your law enforcement. He can do _ anything _ to you.” 

Youngbin tries to hold back his fear, hiding it behind his gentle, carefree smile. “How do you know about the police force? You have those underwater?”

“This is serious!” Juho cries, his head snapping back up to attention. He seems to have awoken from the state he’d been in previously, his eyes wide and attentive. “How are you so calm right now!?”

“Because,” Youngbin shrugs, “I’ll kill him before he can hurt you.” When Juho looks down towards the ground, Youngbin parts his lips softly, reaching down to grab the other’s hand. “I’ll protect you no matter what.”

Juho nods, and Youngbin can’t help but lean forward and press his lips gently to the other’s forehead, brushing Juho’s hair to the side lightly with his free hand. Juho stiffens but stays still, looking up hesitantly when Youngbin pulls away. 

There’s something curious in his eyes, and Juho moves forward slightly, his knees knocking against Youngbin’s as he gets closer to the other. “Youngbin,” he breathes, biting his lip, “I have an idea.”

“Let me hear it,” the brunette smiles, his thumb running circles over the other’s knuckle. The motions feel natural, but he knows that if he was thinking about them he’d worry. The previous night comes back to him in waves, washing over him steadily. 

_ Imagine if you were in his position _. 

_ He has to know what he’s doing. _

_ Do you _ want _ him to get closer? _

“I can replace his hold on you with my own,” he starts, tightening his grip on Youngbin’s hand. “That way, you’ll be safe if he comes back.”

“But what about you?” Youngbin frowns. He realizes slowly that he doesn’t care what happens to himself, he just wants to see that Juho’s safe. Juho is his one concern - he would die a horrible, violent death at the hands of Taeyang if it meant that Juho would be safe.

“I never said you can’t protect me still,” Juho hums, “but if you’re safe from him, then even if things go wrong, he can’t hurt you.”

“So do it.”

Juho’s eyes widen, and he turns to look around. “Right now?”

Youngbin doesn’t understand why the other looks so shocked. “Well, yeah.” Juho seems embarrassed, as if the room is watching and judging him as he and Youngbin speak. “Why wouldn’t we do it right now?”

Juho bites his lip, breaking his hand away from Youngbin’s so he can place it on the other’s hip to support himself as he leans forward. His other hand shoots up to the back of the Youngbin’s head, fingers curling through Youngbin’s hair, and before the brunette realizes what the other’s doing his lips are working against Juho’s expertly, his breath being stolen by the other’s greedy mouth instantly. 

They stay locked against each other for longer than Youngbin expects; it’s partially his fault, he figures, as when Juho pulls away Youngbin chases his lips, snaring them again with his own before luring Juho back into the kiss, biting down gently on his bottom lip to keep him hooked in place. 

“Hey, have either of you seen my phone? There’s a picture of a disappointed yet gentle looking Terry Crews in the case. You know, to keep me from making dangerous online purchases - what the fuck are you two doing?”

Youngbin and Juho jump back from each other instantly, turning to see Seokwoo standing in the doorway. The tall, dark haired boy raises his hands to his mouth, eyes wide with shock. “Was… Did I interrupt something?”

“No,” Youngbin shakes his head, “not at all.” He lies through his teeth.

Juho smiles, twirling a strand of his hair innocently around his finger. Seokwoo catches the motion, raising a curious finger as he stares at the other. “Your hair’s black now.”

“It does that.”

“Can you make it blue?”

“It’s not like it’s a fun fucking party trick, Seokwoo.” Youngbin starts roughly, “leave the room.”

The younger nods before ducking back into the room he’d just exited, the door slamming shut behind himself. He’d had shock written across him just like Youngkyun had from the older’s sudden anger.

Youngbin can’t bring himself to look at Juho, instead looking at the ground between them as he waits for the other to break the silence. Across from him, Juho must not want to speak either, breathing heavily as he keeps his eyes on the door Seokwoo had just disappeared behind.

The hum of the fluorescent lights above the two is the only sound in the room besides the faintest scratching of whatever cleaning device Seokwoo was using against the wall in the opposite room. Besides Juho and Youngbin’s breathing, of course. 

Youngbin raises a hand and wipes the back of it across his mouth, chuckling softly into his skin. It draws Juho’s attention back to himself, and he looks up and catches the other’s gaze aggressively. 

“Was that your plan, or have you just been waiting to do that?” Youngbin teases, earning a soft gasp from Juho. The other smiles, though, shaking his head before raising his hands to hide his face. 

“Whatever.” Juho murmurs, pressing his palms flush to his cheeks. “He can’t hurt you now.”

Youngbin nods, dropping his hand into his lap as he watches the other. Juho tucks a stray strand of ebony hair behind his ear, looking back at Youngbin before letting his own hands fall to his knees. 

“We should get out of here.”

* * *

It’s easy to break into Youngbin’s house. 

Easier than the boy had expected, at least. The older had his kitchen window unlocked despite the freezing weather that had begun to roll in that morning. It slid open under his gentle touch, and he’d climbed over the sill and expertly avoided spilling anything that was sitting on the messy counter beneath him. 

“Youngbin?” The older hadn’t answered his door, but the boy still had to make sure he was alone - when silence follows his call, he reaches back and shuts the window before locking it. 

Something smells off. It’s nothing bad, but it’s nothing great, either. It’s what he expects the bottom of the ocean to smell like - void of any natural, earthy smell to instead be replaced by something cold and overpoweringly _ empty _. He shivers, looking around. 

“Taeyang?” He tries calling out again, crossing his arms over his chest. Something falls in another room, and he smirks as he approaches it cautiously. “I thought I told you to stay out of this town.”

An all too familiar man steps out of the living room, hands stuffed inside his pockets as he approaches the boy who’d just snuck into the house. “My bad, my _ Guardian _.”

The boy bites his smile back, letting it fade from his face as he watches Taeyang. “Why are you here?”

“Why are _ you _ here?”

“I’m cleaning up _your_ mess. And please make it easy on me. Don’t tell me you’re _still_ making one…”

“Maybe I just never learn.” Taeyang shrugs, shoulders dropping comically. “Or maybe I just wanted to run into you again. How’s that family?”

The boy tenses, hesitating over his answer. He tastes the words cautiously, unsure of if he really wants to allow the other to know about his new life. He felt safe for once, but now that Taeyang’s back in front of him he isn’t sure what to feel. 

The hands of temptation claw at him, but he forces them down masterfully, knowing his way around the other’s tricks well. “Are you trying to charm me?” He changes the topic, skillfully stepping around it to avoid possibly endangering the people who had taken him in when he was a child. “You know that doesn’t work.”

“Right, right… I always forget you’re just pretending to be human.”

The boy winces, feeling the words sting him as if they’re physically causing him pain. “Don’t say it like that. You make me sound like a liar.”

“Well, aren’t you?” Taeyang continues, smiling as he begins to circle the other. “You’ve been hiding things from them for your whole life. Even as a kid you knew what you were, right? I _ know _ your memories stayed in tact, you’re one of our most important assets this time around.”

“Stop.”

“Does that brother of yours know? I’d be surprised if he didn’t, since you tell him everything.” Taeyang continues, stopping behind the other. He’s too stunned to turn around to face the siren, so he stays still and lets the other wrap his arms around his waist, drawing him backwards teasingly. “I didn’t ask you to help me out this time.”

“Well, it’s not like I got to choose to be here, so.” The boy gasps when Taeyang’s grip tightens on his sides. “Taeyang, let go of me.”

“You aren’t as tough as you think you are, my Guardian. I could kill you if I wanted to.”

“But you wouldn’t.”

“Who’s to say that?” Taeyang purrs, leaning in closer to the other to whisper against his neck. “We aren’t the same as we were back then.”

The other shivers, tensing at the feeling of the other’s breath on his neck. “Yeah,” he starts, his head drifting backwards so he can rest it on Taeyang’s shoulder, “you’re a lot dumber than you used to be.”

Taeyang grumbles something before his hands drift off of the other’s sides, and when the other turns to look at the siren, he’s met with an empty space behind himself. He sighs, smiling faintly as his hands skirt over his neck where Taeyang’s lips had brushed against it previously. 

“Idiot.”

* * *

“God, it’s really snowing out there…” Youngbin mutters when he finally manages to unlock the door, pushing Juho inside ahead of himself before stepping inside behind him. He kicks off his shoes, reaching forward to pull the other against himself, rubbing his arms up and down with his hands heartily. “You’re shivering.”

“I’m used to it being warm,” Juho murmurs, leaning back against Youngbin. He raises his hands to grab onto Youngbin’s, holding them still for a moment as they stand there.

Youngbin sighs, realizing slowly that his relationship with Juho had changed drastically over the course of the last hour. It had escalated to a point he wasn’t ready for, especially not with somebody who wasn’t even _ human _. 

Though, did that even matter? He had a thing for Edward from Twilight when he was a teenager… He vaguely remembers Inseong calling him a monster fucker while they were watching the movies on the latter’s couch, commenting on their favorite characters and whatnot. 

“It doesn’t feel like there’s been a siren here,” Juho muses, standing comfortably in Youngbin’s arms while the older looks around.

“It’s cleaner than when I left.” Youngbin notes, frowning before breaking away from Juho. He keeps one of his hands interlocked with the other’s, cautiously leading him down the hall to his bedroom. 

The floor’s clean, and Youngbin smells laundry detergent before he sees his bed fully remade with cleaned blankets and sheets. His grip tightens on Juho, and he takes a step back. “Somebody’s been here.”

“Somebody’s still here.”

“What are you talking about?” Youngbin whispers, turning to look at Juho, who points towards the living room hesitantly. Youngbin begins to walk towards the room, keeping Juho behind himself before stopping. “Oh, Chanhee what the fuck are you doing here?”

The younger boy yawns, cracking his eyes open from where he’d been laying dead asleep on Youngbin’s couch. “Oh, you’re home…” He sits up, raising a hand to his mouth to cover it before he yawns once again. “I’m glad.”

Juho peeks around Youngbin’s shoulder curiously, gaze wandering over the other curiously. “Does he clean your house or something?”

“What? No, he’s my best friend’s little brother.” Youngbin laughs, stepping to the side to introduce the two. “This is Chanhee; Chanhee, this is Juho.”

Chanhee nods as if he’d already known the other’s name. He smiles, standing up slowly. “I figured you’d want to come home to a clean house after Taeyang visited this morning.”

Youngbin freezes, curious eyes landing on Chanhee defensively. “How did you know about that?” 

“Oh, I know lots of things.” Chanhee grins, looking back to Juho, who Youngbin immediately steps in front of protectively. “Like how he’s a merman claimed by Taeyang, right?”

“You’re not Chanhee.” Youngbin growls with accusation, earning a loud laugh from the younger.

“Now that’s the stupidest shit I’ve heard all day! Of course I’m Chanhee!” The younger brunette giggles, shaking his head. “Ah… But, like, your Chanhee’s dead. I killed him,” he shrugs, continuing to laugh. Youngbin’s eyes widen with horror, and he takes a step back. Chanhee laughs louder, choking on it as he raises his hands defensively. “I’m kidding! Fuck, I’m just kidding. Relax, Youngbin.”

“What are you?” Youngbin murmurs, grabbing for Juho’s hand softly. The other’s too invested with looking at Chanhee to notice, though, until Youngbin’s fingers brush against his and lock them together.

“I’m like him,” Chanhee shrugs, motioning towards Juho, “except not really. I’m like, halfway there.” He smiles, sitting back down on the edge of the couch. It’s less intimidating, Youngbin feels more comfortable having the advantage of being able to run if Chanhee chooses to wild out. “I’m only here to clean up Taeyang’s mess and pass on a message.”

“Are you his partner or something?”

Chanhee’s face reddens. “It’s _ nothing _ like that.” He hisses defensively, clearly embarrassed. “I just… I have to keep an eye on him.”

“And why’s that?”

“You’ve never been on the ocean’s bad side, have you?”

Youngbin can’t help but laugh. He turns to look at Juho, checking to see if the other found the other’s sudden dramatic flare as humorous as he did. Though, at the stoic expression Juho wears, Youngbin’s laugh falters. “Wait, you’re serious?”

“Well, obviously.” Chanhee lowers his eyebrows. Before he can continue, Juho cuts him off. 

“What did you do?”

“I killed a siren.” Chanhee sighs, looking away. “Not recently, it happened a long time ago. But my punishment is that I have to watch over Taeyang while he fulfills a wish or two. He owes some people.”

“A wish?”

Juho decides to explain when Chanhee rolls his eyes and leans back against the couch. “Sirens have the ability to grant wishes if they’re traded a soul in return.” He whispers into Youngbin’s ear, taking a step back when he’s finished. Youngbin turns.

“That’s all you’re gonna say?”

“Well, I mean, there isn’t much else _ to _ say.”

“This is fucking bizarre.”

Chanhee coughs from in front of them, obviously fake and an obvious attempt to grab the two’s attention. “Right, so anyway, he wanted me to tell you that he’s taking Juho. To fulfill somebody’s wish.”

“Yeah, that’s not happening.” Youngbin snarls, reaching into his pocket to find his phone. Though, his fingers brush empty space. “Did I have my phone with me in the lab?” He turns to Juho, who shakes his head in response. “It must be in my room somewhere, then…” He turns back to Chanhee, frowning. “Does Inseong know what you’re up to?”

“Of course not, but he knows what I am.” Chanhee hums. “After all, it was him who found me on that beach alone when I was a kid. Didn’t he ever tell you about it?”

Youngbin barely remembers sitting on Inseong’s counter, watching the latter work as he baked something on the table opposite the room from him. They were in high school at the time, animatedly talking about their fucked up pasts. Inseong had said something about getting lost during a storm, ending up hiding out somewhere on the beach with another kid he’d found wandering alone. After that, they’d gone through hell to adopt Chanhee; Youngbin hadn’t realized he was the other lost child until Chanhee had basically written the entire story out for him. “I didn’t think it was you.”

“I mean, do you think they even wanted to adopt another kid?” Chanhee’s tone turns bittersweet, something cold hiding behind his words. “It’s my fault they got hurt, you know? The ocean gets its revenge when it wants to.”

Juho’s oddly still behind Youngbin, and the brunette turns to look at him. While he’s distracted, Chanhee stands up and walks past them. “Anyway,” he hums, “I’ll be going now. I’m sorry I had to bother you like this, but I need to make sure I stay on fate’s good side.”

“How are you getting home?” Youngbin glances at Chanhee, and the younger shrugs. 

“Seokwoo and I had plans to meet up at the corner store a few blocks away, so I’ll just walk there.”

“In the snow?”

“I’m not affected by it.” Chanhee walks out of the room, the front door shutting softly behind himself after he reaches and opens it. Youngbin turns his attention back to Juho, sighing softly at the other’s silence. 

“Are you okay?” Youngbin murmurs, sitting on the edge of the couch before pulling Juho down next to himself. “Talk to me, I don’t like it when you get quiet like this.”

Juho shakes his head, shrugging. “It’s a lot more complicated now.”

“Why, because of what Chanhee said? I wouldn’t worry about that; it doesn’t change anything.”

“But it does. Youngbin, souls are…” Juho sighs exasperatedly, falling back against the couch dejectedly. “You can’t just fuck around with souls. Wishes have to be granted, or else other forces get involved and it’s very complicated to deal with.”

“That’s not your problem,” Youngbin raises his eyebrows, “none of this is. Let other forces get involved, see if I care. I’m not letting him take you.”

“You want to invoke the wrath of the ocean _ and _ stars to save me? What a hero.” Juho mumbles sarcastically, biting the inside of his cheek as he turns to look away. “Your fate would be worse than mine and Taeyang’s combined.”

Youngbin doesn’t understand any of it. The story he’s becoming entangled with is far too difficult for him to understand, yet he’s too invested with Juho to close the book and let go now. He’s in over his head, and willingly wades further into the current if it means he gets to stay with the other. Juho feels familiar to him; he doesn’t want to let go of him. “I need you to help me wrap my head around this,” he sighs, falling back next to the other. 

“The water is home to all life on this planet. That and fire, but flame demons are a whole other thing that we don’t need to go into detail on. You won’t run into them unless you _ really _ fuck up somewhere.” Youngbin’s already completely lost, but he likes hearing Juho speak so he does his best to listen in hopes to catch on to the other’s explanation. “Humans left the water and evolved on land, but we did the same in the ocean. Sirens were cursed somewhere, I don’t really know much about them, but I guess the sea saw them as strong since they began killing humans at their own command. So they became the guardians of the water and everything inside, basically,” Juho’s only slightly animated, moving his hand every so often when he speaks as if he’s drawing it all out in the air for Youngbin. “They don’t technically grant wishes, they only help the ocean grant them by doing the dirty work. It’s the same way for the stars and whoever they employ to grant their wishes, but I don’t know much about that either. It's the whole premise of that _wish upon a shooting star_ thing. Or, whatever it is you guys say.”

Youngbin nods, turning towards Juho. “And what about the flame demons?”

“Hmm… I don’t really know,” he shrugs, “I think they only show up when a star fades, but that’s all just speculation I heard from the sailors I spent some time with growing up. A lot of what I know might be wrong, too… It’s all just what I’ve heard from the ships I’ve been on, you know? Fishermen’s tales that stem from old folkore and theories that they make up while they're drunk.”

“Well, it sounds right to me.” Youngbin smiles, still horribly confused but not willing to let the other know. Juho looks grateful nonetheless, and curls up against Youngbin’s side. 

“So…” Juho mumbles lowly, burying his face against Youngbin’s shoulder, “I need to leave with Taeyang.” 

Youngbin cringes when the other says the siren’s name. “No, no you don’t.”

Juho sighs. “What happened to your friend’s parents?”

Youngbin bites his lip, staring forwards silently. He can still hear Inseong’s pained sobs, the soft bursts of static breaking them every so often as Youngbin tried to console him over the phone. “I don’t want to talk about it.”

“Worse will happen to you, me, and anybody else involved if I don’t go with Taeyang.” Juho states simply, throwing one of his legs over Youngbin’s lap. The brunette closes his eyes, groaning. 

“But I don’t want him to take you.”

“You think I want to go?” Juho sighs. “I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if you got hurt trying to protect me, Youngbin.”

“This is fucked up,” Youngbin points out, and he feels Juho nod against him. “What’s going to happen to you if he gets to you?”

“I don’t know.”

“I don’t want to let him take you.”

Juho laughs. It’s sad, just a few exhales, really, but it’s enough to send a soft jolt through Youngbin’s heart when he realizes he truly _ is _ in way too deep. “We’ve established that, Youngbin.”

The home is quiet around them, and Youngbin feels the cold set in over him more than it had when he was standing outside in it. He opens his eyes, turning to look at Juho. The other glances up at him, raising a curious eyebrow when he meets Youngbin’s gaze. “What?”

Youngbin reaches over, fingers curling and pulling on the collar of Juho’s shirt lightly. He wants to pull the other closer, capture his lips again like he’d done before, but he’s afraid to. His concern raises once again, that he’d be pushing something onto the other and that he’d be too nervous to say anything against it because of his current position. Youngbin lets go of the shirt, letting his hand rub against it to smooth out the wrinkles he’d drawn out. “Is this Seokwoo’s shirt?”

“Oh, yeah, he let me borrow some clothes.” Juho mumbles, placing a hand over the spot Youngbin’s had been on a moment before. “That’s okay, right?”

“Of course, why wouldn’t it be?” Youngbin smiles, earning a hesitant grin from the other. “Are you hungry? I can make something…”

“I’m okay,” Juho hums, “but if _ you’re _ hungry then you should go make something.”

“I’m fine.”

Tension rises between the two steadily. Juho’s eyes drop down to the other’s collarbone before rising back up , and he bites his lip when his gaze skirts over Youngbin’s jawline. Youngbin tries not to be affected by it, turning his head to force himself to look away. 

Juho moves closer, ending up on top of Youngbin’s lap just so he can meet his gaze again. His legs are on either side of the other, knees locking him in place harshly. “Why are you holding back?”

Youngbin takes a sharp breath in, feeling overwhelmed by the other. He can barely breathe, barely move, or even think with the other so close to him. He presses his lips together tightly, shakily exhaling after a moment. “Because I’m going to lose you.”

“That’s stupid.”

The brunette nods, reaching forward to clasp his hands on the other’s sides to steady him. “You’re okay with this?”

“Just kiss me.”

Youngbin reaches up and grabs the other’s collar with one hand once again, yanking him down before his lips mesh against the other’s steadily. Juho’s hands jump to Youngbin’s shoulders, his grip on them tight as the other pushes against him, desperation leaking through his every move. 

When they pull away for the first time, Youngbin’s disorientation from the adrenaline filled moments swears it’s been hours when in reality he knows it’s only been mere minutes that he and Juho had been pressed against each other on the couch. Juho gasps for breath, slotting his fingers through his hair before Youngbin grabs him and flips their positions, moving them until Juho’s laying with his head on the arm of the couch and Youngbin’s between his legs - one of which is thrown haphazardly over the back of the couch while the other hangs off of the edge. 

“This is okay?” Youngbin’s gaze softens, and he leans forward to press his lips chastely to the other’s cheek. “If it’s not then tell me.”

“I don’t know why you stopped.” Juho hums, laughing when Youngbin presses his lips quickly to his own once again. Youngbin pulls away immediately, a confused smile crossing his face when he looks to the other. 

* * *

Youngbin wakes up in his own bed alone. At first he’s confused, sitting up immediately to look for Juho, but sees the other walking back to the room down the dimly lit hallway a moment later. 

“Did I wake you up?” The ebony haired man hums, and though it’s dark Youngbin can tell he’s smiling. It’s in his voice; indescribable yet undeniably happy. 

“No, not at all.” Youngbin reaches over to grab the other’s hand, running his thumb over his knuckle gently. “When did we come to my room?”

“A few hours ago. We were both really tired; I just woke up, too.”

“Ah…” Youngbin nods, moving over to give the other room to climb back up onto the bed. Juho tiredly lays down next to him, resting his head in the crook of the other’s shoulder before dotingly reaching up to brush Youngbin’s hair back. He throws a leg over the human’s, murmuring slightly into his neck as he pulls himself closer to the other. “Where’d you go?”

“I thought I heard something.” Juho hums, burying his face further against the other’s skin. “It was nothing, though.”

The words are enough to put Youngbin on edge. He narrows his eyes, worriedly running a hand up and down the other’s spine after shifting his arm underneath him. “Are you sure?”

“Mm…” Juho nods, closing his eyes. “Let’s go back to sleep.”

Youngbin convinces himself it’s okay before beginning to close his eyes, easing back into a peaceful lull with Juho next to him. Before he can fully fall asleep, though, something cracks from across the room.

At first he tries to ignore it, but Juho shoots up from where he’d been laying, and so Youngbin opens his eyes and sits up.

It had sounded like glass breaking, so Youngbin’s first thought is to look to the mirror on top of his dresser. It’s fine, still perfectly in tact, but then he looks to the window on the other wall. 

“Was that always broken?”

Juho and Youngbin watch as the crack continues to grow, the splintering sound of glass echoing painfully through the room. When the crack finally reaches from the center of the window to the side, the entirety of the window shatters, glass spilling onto the floor and down the wall.

“No,” Youngbin shakes his head, “no it wasn’t.”

The window isn’t big enough for somebody to fit through, but it’s plenty for the cold air to seep in through. Youngbin grabs the edge of the comforter before lifting it up, sliding out of bed with it still in his grip. Juho follows him out of the room, shutting the door behind himself at Youngbin’s request. 

“We’re gonna go to the lab.” Youngbin murmurs, dragging the comforter on the floor behind himself. Juho picks it up, bundling the stray cloth protectively in his grasp before running to catch up to Youngbin, sliding on the shoes Seokwoo had lent him as Youngbin slips on his own. “I’m gonna grab a few things, okay? Just wait right here and call me if you see anything.”

Youngbin isn’t worried. His heart beats unnaturally fast, and his anxiety swells in his stomach and head, but he refuses to admit that he’s worried. He walks at a steady pace back to his room, opens the door, flicks the light on and begins to look around on his dresser for anything he might need. He grabs his phone and wallet, deciding quickly to grab a bag from the back of his door and fill it blindly with any clothes he can find inside the drawers in the dark. 

Juho’s still standing idly by the door waiting for him when Youngbin finally walks back, shutting the door behind himself once again. He grabs his coat from the hook next to the door and urges Juho to drop the comforter so he can slide his coat onto the other’s broad shoulders easier. “It’s freezing outside,” he mumbles, picking up the blanket before throwing it over his shoulder. 

“Won’t you be cold?” Juho pulls the jacket tighter around himself, looking with concern to Youngbin. 

“No, I’m fine.” Youngbin assures him, opening the door before reaching into his jacket pocket to grab the keys, Juho stifling a gasp when Youngbin’s hand absently brushes his side. Youngbin pulls it away immediately, turning towards the other. “Does your side still hurt?”

“No.” 

Juho’s lying. It’s written across his face, the pain. It’s in how he bites his lip, how his eyes well with tears he refuses to let go of. Youngbin nervously reaches back and grabs Juho’s hand, pulling him out of the house before locking the door behind them. “I’m checking on it when we get to the lab.”

The other doesn’t argue, stepping into the car immediately when Youngbin opens the door for him. 

Youngbin wastes no time throwing his bag and the comforter in the back of the car before shoving the keys into the ignition, flicking the lights on immediately to illuminate his driveway. “I swear,” he murmurs absently, “if this siren does anything worse than breaking that window, I’ll be pissed.”

“Are you sure it was him?”

“What other explanation is there?” Youngbin begins driving, sighing before letting one of his hands fall onto Juho’s thigh. “It’s fine, we’ll deal with it. I’ll call somebody in the morning to fix the window.” 

“We?”

“Well, yeah.” Youngbin hums, exhaustion lacing his tone, slowing his words and making his words vibrate in his chest slightly as he speaks. “For as long as you’re here, it’s we.”

Juho hums, closing his eyes before turning to look at the window. “How long do you think we have?”

“I don’t know.”

The lab isn’t empty when Juho and Youngbin finally get inside, hauling the over sized blanket and bag between them. Juho had insisted on carrying the blanket, not wanting Youngbin to be holding onto everything himself. 

Jaeyoon glances up at them when they come inside, giving a small greeting before looking back down to his work. Though, he immediately snaps his head back up, eyes widening. “You have black hair now.” He observes, eyeing Juho curiously. “What’s that like?”

“I don’t know.”

“Great answer, I love the enthusiasm.” Jaeyoon smiles, but sighs when he sees Youngbin. “What are you guys doing back here? I thought you were staying at your house tonight, that’s what Seokwoo said.”

Youngbin shrugs, shaking his head. His eyes narrow slightly, showcasing his exhaustion and unhappiness with the entire situation. His shoulders drop dejectedly, hanging submissively as he follows Juho to the observation room. “We’ll talk about it in the morning.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *insert vine of that girl making peace signs in the mirror while sobbing her eyes out* whats up team  
anyway. after realizing that i do not write seafoam and it instead writes me i decided to just go with it and you know thats completely fine i just think its really funny how * and * are actually lowkey the * *s in this yet the way they go about * away * to * the * is so fucked up so like. painted these mfs as the *s so easily ALEXA this is so sad play like the hands held tight  
also can we discuss how bomb fire is. like. sf9 didnt need to go THAT hard but they really did and im so thankful for it like HELLO???  
also!! please stream the good guy mv on youtube <3333333333 sf9 first win!!!  
as always thank u so so so much for reading :(( i wuv uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu <33 i hope ure having a good day/night/afternoon :D i love u so so so much please always be happy u deserve it so much  
<333 -elise
> 
> twt: @blossomfic  
cc: @blossomfic  
carrd: floret.carrd.co


	6. riptide

Youngbin finds himself lying on the cold tile floor of the observation room, his blanket having abandoned his body when Juho chose to roll over and take it with him. Youngbin figured he was going to sleep in the pool, so he’d been surprised when Juho had collapsed next to him and curled into his chest, balling his hands tightly around the brunette’s shirt before he closed his eyes.

Now, Juho lays with his back pressed against Youngbin, the brunette having pulled him back without wanting to steal the blanket from the other’s clutches. It still hangs fully around Juho, pulled tight underneath him on one side while the other flows loosely over the floor. Youngbin can’t help but worry; he knows that for now, the two are safe, but he can’t say the same for what may be the near future. 

Youngbin’s phone starts ringing from where it’s buried inside his bag, and he grumbles as he unhooks his arms from around Juho to turn over and grab it, unzipping the bag before digging through it for a moment. He answers the call after he grabs the device, bringing it to his ear. “What?”

_ “You sound great.” _

“Oh, Inseong,” he sighs, feeling Juho shift beside him. He looks over to see the other looking up at him with tired eyes, and he smiles before whispering a small apology, pulling the other closer. “No, I’m not apologizing to you, Inseong, what do you want?”

_ “I’m coming home today, shithead. Want to get dinner with me and 'Hyuk?” _

Youngbin hums, closing his eyes when he feels Juho rest his head atop his chest. He raises a hand to card through the other’s hair, sighing softly. “Yeah, sure.”

_ “Hey, bring that Juho guy with you. He’s cute.” _

“Fuck off,” Youngbin laughs, continuing to run his fingers through the other’s hair, “you’re married.”

_“But you’re not~.”_ Inseong teases, and Youngbin hears someone murmur something from the other end of the line. _“Ah, hey, I have to go. I’ll see you tonight?”_

“Yeah.” The call ends, and Youngbin opens his eyes to look at the other. “Sorry for waking you up.”

Juho murmurs something against Youngbin’s shirt, too tired to say it any louder for the human to hear. He looks up to Youngbin, pouting. “Inseong?”

“My friend,” Youngbin reminds him, sure he’d brought up the other at least once before. “Chanhee’s brother.”

“Yeah,” Juho nods, “I remember.” He brings his hand up to grab onto Youngbin’s, dragging it down gently to hold by his side. “Why are we here?”

Youngbin blows out a soft breath, looking up to the ceiling. “It was the only safe place I could think of…”

Juho shrugs, sitting up before sliding onto the other’s lap, dropping back down to lay on top of him a moment later. Youngbin smiles, snaking his arms around the other. 

“But it’s not safe here, either.” Juho whispers, causing Youngbin to widen his eyes. Panic rises in his chest.

“Why would you think that?”

Juho looks up to him, his eyes void of any emotion Youngbin could latch onto to calm himself down.

“We’re even closer to the water now.”

* * *

_ The man shifted uncomfortably from where he sat across the room, his dark hair hanging down in front of his eyes as he stayed motionless. _

_ “You were lying to me?” _

_ He glanced up, and his wrists gently pulled against the shackles they were bound in. A metallic chime sounded throughout the room.  _

_ “I can’t believe you. What, you can’t speak now?” _

_ The other had nothing to say. He dropped his gaze again, beginning to pull more violently against the bindings on his arms.  _

_ “Answer me!” The shout made the other look up quickly, anger flashing across his features. _

_ “What do you want me to say!?” He screamed back, and in the low light the red tint of his face began to become visible. “That I’m sorry? That my job wasn’t hard on me as well?!” _

_ His breath hitched. He stared across the room, his soaked hair dripping onto the floor as he shook with rage. “Lying to you was hard enough. You made it so damn difficult for me to do my job…” _

_ “Well, I’m glad about that. If you’d actually managed to stick with it I would be dead.” _

_ He scoffed with disbelief, and with a final jerk of his arms he managed to knock his restraints loose enough to slide off. “Blue Blood,” he remarked flatly, “let’s just get to killing each other another day. How about we get out of here while we still can first?” _

_ “What, you want me to live now? You’re funny, Juho. Really funny." _

_ The other shrugged, letting his shackles fall to the floor as he stood. “Then stay here and let them kill you, Blue.” He approached the doorway, the gravel underneath his feet turning with each step. _

_ “No, wait." Juho turned around, staring at the other as he squirmed in his restraints. "Untie me.” _

* * *

“Youngbin, you have to come with me right now.”

Before Jaeyoon had burst into the room, the two on the floor of the observation room had fallen into an uncomfortable silence. Youngbin hadn’t taken into account how close they were to the ocean, not when their only other option had easy entrances and broken windows. Youngbin didn’t even know how Taeyang had managed to slip inside all those nights when he’d locked the doors. He was sure it was the other who had been drifting through the shadows in his bedroom, starting with the night he'd first met Juho.

The brunette glances up, raising his eyebrows as he looks to Jaeyoon, who stands shaking in the doorway. 

“Oh, I’m sorry,” he snarks, staring at the two distastefully, “am I disturbing your little fuck session?”

“Does holding hands constitute as fucking now?” Youngbin frowns, sitting up. Juho sits back into the other’s lap, trying to mock Youngbin’s annoyed expression to shoot it back to Jaeyoon. “Because if so, yes, you’re disturbing it.”

Jaeyoon looks like he wants to cry. “Bro, I don’t fucking care. I need you to come with me right now.”

“Okay, I’m coming.” Youngbin hums, leaning forward to press a chaste kiss to Juho’s cheek. He hears Jaeyoon let out a confused grunt from the doorway. “I’ll be back in a minute.”

“Are you two,” Jaeyoon stutters, unable to keep the shock out of his wavering voice, “are you actually…”

The two ignore him, and Juho leans forward to instead run his lips over the other’s, just barely kissing him in a way to get Youngbin to chase his lips. He leans back as soon as the other connects them. “Hurry back.”

“What the _fuck,_ bro.”

“Sure,” Youngbin nods, letting his fingers run through the other’s hair a final time before they break apart from each other, Youngbin standing to walk over to Jaeyoon. “What’s going on?”

“You… Him… Well,” Jaeyoon can’t form a cohesive sentence in his head, and so he simply blurts out the reason he’d stormed into the room in the first place, “there's a dead girl outside!”

It’s all Youngbin needs to hear before he’s rushing out the door, Jaeyoon hot on his heels. “What the fuck is that supposed to mean?”

“There is a dead girl.” Jaeyoon breaks for emphasis, “in the parking lot.”

Youngbin pauses, turning to look back at Jaeyoon. “The parking lot or the beach?”

“Did I say beach?” Jaeyoon hisses, taking the lead before walking hesitantly down the hall. Youngbin follows him, his nerves pounding in his chest. 

Jaeyoon pauses in front of the door as if he doesn’t really want to open it. His hands hover above it, just barely pressing the handle down. Youngbin takes initiative to shove it open, immediately recoiling from the freezing air that blows through the door.

“Fuck!” He hisses, picking up the collar of his shirt to pin it over his nose. He steps out into the cold, cautious as he approaches the woman’s body that’s laying oddly in the center of the parking lot.

Directly next to his truck.

As if she had been placed there.

He approaches her carefully, trying to assess the situation as best as he can. She’s in a black swimsuit, her hair short and choppy as if it had been cut off suddenly without having the chance to be fixed. “How do you think she got here?” He calls to Jaeyoon, who had followed him into the cold. He doesn’t know why he’s so calm; neither he nor Jaeyoon are jumping to call the authorities. Things had just been so strange lately, this didn’t shock him.

Jaeyoon shrugs. “I have no fucking idea, ‘Bin.” Youngbin nods with agreement.

Youngbin circles her. When he comes to face her front, which is left staring at his truck and away from Jaeyoon and the lab, he pauses. There’s long gashes lacing her chest, barely bleeding, and underneath them is a written message in awfully familiar handwriting.

All that’s missing is a black scale.

**youre next**

Youngbin feels his stomach turn, and when Jaeyoon walks over to investigate what had caused Youngbin to panic the brunette quickly crouches down and rubs his hand over the words, grimacing at how they stick to his skin so easily. He couldn’t let Jaeyoon see. The other getting involved was something he just knew he needed to avoid.

“Holy shit,” Jaeyoon whispers. “I…”

“Are we sure she’s dead?” Youngbin takes a step back, suddenly feeling overexposed. The  **youre next** burns a hole through his freezing hand.

Jaeyoon turns to look at him incredulously. “Yes?” As he turns, he crouches down, twisting his neck to glance underneath Youngbin's truck before looking back to the girl.

“Right…” He mumbles, looking back towards the forest behind them. He can’t shake the feeling of being watched. “Does this seem weird to you?”

Jaeyoon shrugs, crouching down before turning the girl over onto her back. “It’s definitely weirder than you think,” he notes, and Youngbin looks back to see what Jaeyoon had begun hinting at.

Light blue scales trail along the girl’s inner thighs, which had been hidden since she had been laying on her side. Youngbin’s eyes widen, and he falls next to Jaeyoon. “Something’s seriously wrong here.” He starts. “Why is she here?”

“I’m more concerned about what we should do with the _corpse_ in our parking lot. We can worry about why she’s here and what happened later, okay?” Jaeyoon snaps dismissively. “Help me bring her back to the water.”

* * *

He needed something big to get Youngbin’s attention.

The broken window had barely gotten him anywhere; not like the scale had. He needed to make a statement to make sure the other remembered who was really in charge.

So, when Taeyang notices the body lying motionless on the beach as he tries to figure out how he could go about breaking into the lab unnoticed, he approaches it with an idea forming in his head.

“Poor thing,” he murmurs, frowning as he lays a hand against the girl’s cold shoulder, gently turning her onto her side. “You almost made it, too.” He knows what she is without even needing to investigate further; he can smell it on her, the depth of the water in her skin and the salt in her hair. The smell never left; it was like home.

She’d died from being separated from the ocean for a prolonged period of time, and had been only inches away before she finally collapsed.

Adjusting his hand over her shoulder, he frowns. “Why were you here of all places?” He feels a sudden warmth transfer onto his hand and he rolls his eyes back, gasping involuntarily. It’s a burning pain that shoots up his arm, etching its way deep within his skin. After a moment the warmth fades, and Taeyang feels his shoulders slope slightly downwards from the weight added onto them.

Yet again, he was in charge of fulfilling the wishes of another soul. It was usually the sirens who had to replant, in a sense, the souls of those who had existed once before in the water but died outside of it. Their burden was heavier than most knew. “I’ll bring it somewhere nice, okay?” He promises, frowning as he picks his hand up from where it had been on the girl’s skin to instead rub his arm, the fading warmth still making his skin tingle. “Fuck…”

He looks up towards the parking lot, calculates something quickly, and hesitantly slips his arms underneath the girl’s knees and shoulders. “Sorry, first I’m gonna use your body to scare the shit out of some guy.”

It doesn’t take him long to position her next to Youngbin’s truck, and Taeyang leans back to blow out a soft breath. It had been light work, but the cold was doing horrible things to him. The snow had just stopped coming down about an hour ago, but the wind that had been battering his skin was violent and freezing. He needed to leave before things got any worse — but for that he needed Juho.

He decides that the body isn’t enough, so he looks to the pavement and notices an overturned, sharp piece of it sticking out to face him.

If he wants to intimidate Youngbin, he needs to make it look like he had killed the girl laying on the pavement. He reaches down and grabs the blacktop, looking away as he drags it against his palm sharply. He hisses, letting out a soft cry as it slices into his skin before he drops the stone, crouching next to the girl.

“Sorry,” he mumbles, watching the blood drip from his hand onto a set of semi-healed wounds lacing the girl’s chest. He doesn’t want to know how they had gotten there, or what had caused them. They viciously line the skin above her heart. “Sorry.”

He needs the human to fuck up just enough so that he can get to Juho. He feels bad about splitting them up, sure, but wishes were wishes and Taeyang would hate for the soul he’d already taken to initiate the wish to begin rotting. He’d be as good as dead if he let it rot.

The wish was complicated, no doubt. He remembers laughing when the human had said it the first time, but he grew serious when they repeated their words to him, confidence lacing each consonant. It was so specific; but Taeyang hadn’t come close to failing yet. He knew it would take more than just separating him and Youngbin to fulfill the wish, but this was just the start. 

He lowers his finger to the girl’s ribs, hesitating for a moment before writing out two words he knew would get Youngbin to panic.

**youre next**

He laughs as he writes it, knowing that Youngbin would probably fear for his life when he saw it. He didn’t want to hurt him; maybe eat his heart, but that’s how all sirens were with every human. Hell, sirens had killed mermaids and flame demons for their hearts as well. But Taeyang likes Youngbin when comparing him to other humans he’d met. He didn’t want to hurt him unless he tried fighting back, so he had to make sure the other knew what position he was in before he got too ahead of himself.

Across the parking lot, Taeyang hears the door of the lab creak as it begins to open. He freezes, and after a moment of silence drops down from his crouched position to instead crawl underneath Youngbin’s truck, feeling himself fade into the shadows just slightly when he’s finally underneath it.

Sirens had plenty of abilities; being able to stall time or to live through countless loops of it, being able to sense one of their kind (or anything similar) from a few miles away, or even being able to camouflage themselves against various different things were just several. Taeyang was lucky to have been born with a black tail; he could hide in the shadows easily.

He hears the door slam shut, and faintly hears a beating pulse come closer. Though, it couldn’t be Youngbin, he’d know for sure if it was him. 

No, it’s another siren. He’s positive; he can taste it in the air like poison. He doesn’t know why he hadn’t been able to detect them before, but becomes curious as he peeks out from underneath the vehicle.

Pink hair… That was a fashion statement and a half. The other is calm, circling the body as he tries to come up with a valid reason for it to be there. There’s clear confusion in his expression and posture.

Taeyang jerks back underneath the truck when the other turns around towards him. He was stronger, Taeyang could tell. His own abilities were becoming weaker from how he’d been starving himself since he arrived in this shit town to take Juho. He couldn’t have just left the corpses of heartless humans behind for Juho to warn Youngbin about, he’d needed the element of surprise. It had been months since he’d last hunted, and each day he felt it worse than he had the last. 

The other clearly hadn’t been holding back on his killing. He seemed sure of himself, ready to spring with a moment’s notice. Taeyang only prays he hadn’t been seen, pursing his lips together tightly as he stares up at the underside of the truck, his breath bated.

The other circles the body once more, and Taeyang has the sickening feeling that the scratches on the girls chest had been caused by this siren whose territory he’d unknowingly walked into. He stops in front of the truck, pausing for a moment before slamming his shoe against the tire, causing the vehicle to jerk underneath the impact. “You should find a better hiding place.”

Taeyang grinds his teeth together, his prayers having been all in vain. He feels his hands shake when the other laughs.

“You’re lucky I’m in a good mood,” he hums, “because if I wasn’t...” He clicks his tongue, pausing for a moment before finishing his first thought with a completely different one. Though, Taeyang can fill in the blanks. “Siren blood is better than human, in my honest opinion.”

Taeyang tries not to, but his lips part around an almost silent whimper. It only makes the man standing nearby laugh harder, louder. 

He crawls further underneath the truck when the other siren takes a step closer to it. With his head raised, Taeyang watches his movements with panic in his gaze. 

“If I come back out here and you’re not gone, I’ll kill you.”

After spitting his words out into the cold air, the other siren turns around. Taeyang watches his shoes begin walking in the other direction, back towards the lab. He lets out a breath he didn’t realize he’d been holding in.

* * *

“Why the fuck are you here?”

Chanhee stands in front of him, frowning. He’d clearly just woken up, a one size too large shirt hanging off of his shoulder while a pair of black sweats hugged his legs loosely.

“Is anybody else home?”

“I wouldn’t have answered the door if there was.” Chanhee grumbles, allowing the other to walk inside before he shuts and locks the door behind him. “Don’t touch anything, I don’t want your grimy ocean hands on my things.” He walks out of the entryway and across the living room to enter the kitchen. Taeyang follows him, jumping slightly with shock when Chanhee spins around and bitterly instructs him to sit down at the bar. Taeyang nods, doing so instantly, folding his arms together on top of the linoleum as he watches Chanhee open up various cupboards and drawers, making a small pile of packages and containers on the counter in front of himself deeper in the kitchen.

The home was nicer than Taeyang would have imagined. “You live with Inseong and Sanghyuk?” He figures, to which the younger nods. 

“I’m nineteen,” he hums, yawning. “Inseong won’t let me leave until I’m twenty-one.”

“He’s overprotective, huh?”

“He doesn’t want me to grow up yet.” The words send a horrible pain through Taeyang’s heart, and he chokes on his breath when the other says them. “Huh?” Chanhee turns to look at him, eyes widening. “Oh, sorry… I forget how caught up you are with the past.”

Taeyang shakes his head, raising a hand dismissively as he stares at the counter top underneath his arms. Silence envelops the two uncomfortably, only broken so often by the clinking of silverware on ceramic when Chanhee adds ingredients into the glasses he’s positioned in front of himself. A few minutes later, Taeyang smells something bitter before Chanhee sets an orange mug down in front of him. “Thank you.”

“I put seaweed in it.” Chanhee notes, and Taeyang grimaces. The younger laughs.

“You know I hate it…” Taeyang mumbles, nonetheless lifting the mug to his lips, taking a small sip of the coffee Chanhee had made. He cringes, having had been hoping the other was joking when he brought up seaweed, yet he feels a sliver of it brush against his tongue. He swallows thickly, setting the mug down. “Fuck.”

“Yeah, but it’s good for when you can’t hunt for a while.”

Taeyang freezes, slowly looking up to the other. “How did you know?”

“You wouldn’t have come here if you weren’t looking for something.” Chanhee smiles, though it doesn’t reach his eyes. Part of him had been assuming that the other had come here looking for a favor, but the rest of him had been hoping Taeyang really wanted to see him. 

“That’s not true,” Taeyang shakes his head. “I just wanted to see you.”

“Your kind is supposed to be good at being convincing.” Chanhee hums from the other end of the bar, sipping his coffee before looking away. “I guess being a loner, you didn’t learn that skill very well.”

Taeyang lets out a dry laugh, taking another sip of the coffee. It’s tolerable now. “You’re still as bratty as you were back then.”

“You’re still a dick.”

“Hey,” Taeyang defends, “you were the one who kept coming back.”

Chanhee nods, his dark hair bobbing in front of his eyes. “It’s fucked up we’re not meant to be together,” he murmurs, “I like your company.”

Constantly, Chanhee says the wrong things. He always had. Taeyang remembers the first time the younger had left him, and bites his tongue to keep from lashing out at the other.

“What do you mean?”

“You’ll be leaving soon, and I’ll be left here to finish up my role. We won’t meet again until we reset, if we reset. I’m fated to be with Seokwoo for now.” The younger shrugs, sipping from his coffee mug carelessly, closing his eyes as he does so. He holds it between both of his hands, looking more childlike than he would knowingly let himself appear, especially in front of the siren.

Taeyang nods, glancing to Chanhee after a moment. The other had a point, but Taeyang knew Chanhee stepping out of line wouldn’t affect the story overall. The wish, so long as it was granted, couldn’t hurt them no matter where Chanhee was placed. 

“Leave with me.” He states simply, 

“What? I-I can’t! I have to take care of Youngbin after you go...” Chanhee sputters, shaking his head quickly. He sets his mug on the counter, too shocked to continue drinking from it.

“What he does won’t be important,” Taeyang shakes his head, “the wish primarily concerns Juho, it’ll be fine if you leave with us.” Taeyang’s hopeful now, his eyes widening as he realizes that this could work. “Seriously,  _ leave with me _ .”

Chanhee bites his lip, looking down at the counter. He traces his finger along it gently, circular motions on the smooth stone as he mulls over the other’s words. Taeyang could see him considering it.

“Just think about it?” Taeyang pleads, gently reaching his hand forward to place over the other’s, stilling his motions instantly. “Please?”

“Okay,” Chanhee nods, “I’ll think about it.” He looks back up, pursing his lips before he pulls his hand away from Taeyang’s to grab his mug. “But only because I would much rather be somewhere warmer. Not for you.”

“I get it,” Taeyang smiles, grabbing his mug. He knows the chance of Chanhee joining him in leaving is slim, but he’s definitely considering it. The younger stands up from his side of the bar, walking back across the kitchen to grab his phone from where he’d left it on the counter. 

He pouts as he turns around, sliding the device into his pocket before he lets his hands fall to the counter behind him, leaning back on them. Chanhee gasps, immediately pulling one of his hands back up, eyeing it with a pained glint in his eyes.

Taeyang glances at him, lips parting softly as he eyes the bead of red blood that drips down the other’s hand. It’s  _ one _ drop, yet it’s still enough to make him feel the pain of the months he’d gone without hunting. 

He chases the other’s finger with his gaze, entranced by it. He has to grip the counter to keep himself from lunging over it, grabbing the other like he would somebody he found drowning… Helpless… The counter creaks. Chanhee doesn’t seem to notice.

“Since when was there a fucking knife there?” Chanhee grumbles, pressing the small wound to his lips before he turns and shoves the cutlery into the sink. Taeyang’s broken from his trance the moment the other hides the blood from sight, and in a fluid motion he picks up his mug and throws his head back, cringing at the bitter taste the drink leaves in his mouth as he finishes it. 

Chanhee finally notices, his eyes widening suddenly when he realizes what danger he’d just avoided. “How long have you actually gone..?”

“Months.” Taeyang hisses, keeping the mug placed over his lips. His words echo inside of the ceramic, yet he refuses to move it away. He’s terrified that if he does, the uncontrollable bloodlust is going to take over him again. “Months.” He repeats, tone low.

“You could  _ die _ .” Chanhee hisses, pushing off of the counter to leave the kitchen, walking over to Taeyang’s side of the bar. “Come on.”

“What?”

Chanhee reaches forward, snatching the mug from the other’s hands before slamming it down against the bar. “Come  _ on _ ,” he grumbles, grabbing Taeyang’s wrist before dragging him upwards, towards the living room. He stomps into the room, pushing Taeyang down onto the couch before falling next to him. 

“Chanhee, what are you doing?”

“Bite me.”

“No?”

Chanhee raises his eyebrows, standing up from the couch. “Do you remember what happened when we first met?”

Taeyang bites his lip, slumping back against the couch dejectedly. “Of course I do.”

“Then you need to realize that when you do this shit to yourself, you’re putting both of us in danger. If you don’t have strength to fight back if somebody else shows up again,” Taeyang only sees the other’s true anger when he pauses, taking a shuddering breath in before he begins speaking through his exhale, his words filled with more life than they had been before, “we might not live to see this wish through.”

The younger takes a step forward, grabbing Taeyang’s hand. “Don’t make me beg you to protect me, not when I’m considering running away from my family for you.”

Taeyang nods, hesitantly drawing Chanhee back down to the couch. The younger sits down next to him again, letting the siren pin him against the back of the couch as he slides over him, Taeyang’s knees on either side of Chanhee’s legs, locking him into place underneath him.

“Do you…” Taeyang bites his lip, knowing the question’s stupid. Chanhee had  _ just _ told him to do it, but he’s still horrified by the thought of it. “You really want me to do this?” 

“Yes.”

Taeyang still hesitates, and Chanhee sighs with annoyance before raising a hand, placing it against the back of Taeyang’s head before he forces it against his shoulder. “Just do it,” he murmurs. 

When Taeyang feels the other hold his head down after he attempts to lift it, he scrunches his eyes shut and bites down lightly, pulling back immediately after Chanhee shudders. “Sorry.”

“Keep going.”

“Chanhee…”

Taeyang’s still only centimeters away from the other’s shoulder, and the smell of the other’s blood is what convinces him to bite down again, more forcefully than the first time. Chanhee gasps, not expecting the sudden enthusiasm behind the other’s actions. He rolls his shoulders back, hissing when Taeyang bites down further.

All he can focus on is the blood. It’s not human blood, not fully, but it’s blood nonetheless and it’s all he’d wanted for so long that when he finally gets it, he can’t stop. Part of him wanted to pull away, knowing that he’d already taken enough, but another part of him has more control and bites down further, humming slightly when Chanhee drops his hand from the back of his head. 

Taeyang leans away to take a breath, and he runs his tongue over his teeth to feel how sharp they’d become. It’s then when he’s able to break out of his previous mindset, pulling away from the other further with worried eyes. “I’m sorry.”

“It’s fine,” Chanhee rests his head against the back of the couch, closing his eyes. “It’ll heal, I just need to rest.”

Taeyang feels his strength returning to him, albeit slowly. He nods, raising a hand to wipe the blood off of his lips before he stands up. Chanhee’s left on the couch as Taeyang begins walking around the home, peeking into each room in an attempt to find the bathroom.

When he finally does find it, next to the staircase that leads into a dark, alluring attic, he grabs a dark towel and soaks one end with hot water before hurrying back to the couch, kneeling down in front of Chanhee.

The younger’s eyes shoot open with confusion when he feels the wet towel touch his neck, and Taeyang works it gently around the wound, swiping up the blood on Chanhee’s shoulder dotingly before flipping the towel, drying the space around the bite after.

All Taeyang feels is guilt. When he looks up to Chanhee, he can only focus on the other’s distant gaze and his exhausted breathing. If he was entirely human, Taeyang was sure he’d be dead from the amount of blood he’d taken. 

“Do you have bandages?” Taeyang murmurs, though when he notices the wound isn’t bleeding he winces. 

“Don’t need ‘em.” Chanhee hums, laying down. He glances to a blanket that’s laying over the back of the couch, and without saying anything Taeyang reaches up to grab it for him, worriedly tossing it over the boy’s body. “Thank you.”

“Don’t,” Taeyang shakes his head, “don’t thank me.”

Chanhee opens one of his eyes. “I’m still cold.”

“Where’s your room? I’ll grab you another blanket-” He’s cut off when Chanhee grabs his hand, pulling him weakly towards the couch. The siren raises an unimpressed eyebrow. “ _ That _ was your clever way of asking me to cuddle with you?”

Chanhee nods, and Taeyang shrugs. “Alright, fair enough. Move over.”

_ “Get your hands off of him!” Taeyang’s held down by the net, kicking violently with legs he wasn’t used to using. He was forced to watch as the man pulled out a knife, trailing it down the side of the younger human’s face. “Stop it!” _

_ “How much do you think somebody would shell out for both of them?” One of the bandits pinning the net to the sand laughed, looking to their leader, the one who crouched above Chanhee with an angered look in his eyes. “A mermaid  _ and _ a member of the king’s guard…” _

_ “We should kill them.” The leader stated, digging the knife into Chanhee’s skin suddenly. Though he’d been trained to stay silent, the boy let out a pained whimper, which garnered Taeyang’s attention immediately. _

_ “Get your fucking hands off of him!” He shrieked again, feeling the net give slightly when he pulled against it. A moment later and he’d ripped his way through it, eyes feral as they turned to look at the leader.  _

_ The man took a step away from Chanhee, but the gash he’d sliced in the guard’s cheek was impressive on its own, and it grabbed Taeyang’s attention the moment it began to bleed profusely, dripping down his face and into the sand beneath him. _

_ “Taeyang?” Chanhee breathed, his eyes filling with panic when the other took a step toward him. “Hey… What are you doing?” _

_ Forgotten, the bandits had taken their time to escape, knowing the freed siren didn’t have his attention on them anymore. Chanhee wasn’t able to say the same, though, as the other approached him slowly. _

_ “Taeyang-!" _

Taeyang wakes up to an empty space beside himself, and he looks around worriedly until he notices Chanhee standing nearby, typing away on his phone as he holds a black trash bag in one hand. “What’s going on?” 

His voice cracks. He cringes, but Chanhee laughs at it, turning to smile at Taeyang before responding. “Inseong and Sanghyuk are coming home early. Did I wake you up?”

“No, not at all.” Taeyang slides off of the couch, hesitantly walking up behind the other before wrapping his arms around him. “Thank you for everything.”

“Don’t get like this with me now,” Chanhee scoffs, “I still have to clean the… Taeyang!” He shouts suddenly when the other turns him around and picks him up. Instinctively, Chanhee’s legs wrap around the other’s hips and his arms around his shoulders, his phone and the bag dropping to the floor forgotten. 

Taeyang hadn’t realized how much he’d been desperate to feel the other’s touch until he had Chanhee wrapped tightly around him, hands drifting over his back lightly. 

“I missed you,” he whispers, and Chanhee nods against his shoulder.

Taeyang knows he doesn’t want to let go the moment he hears the other sniffle slightly against his shirt, hiding his face in the crook of his neck. He wants to keep Chanhee near him, keep him close enough to hold onto if something bad were to happen. He wants to protect the other, and knows he’d be better at it than any human the other had ties with. 

“I missed you, too.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i only got to proofread the first half of this chapter in a VERY rushed way before im posting it hi im procrastinating rn fuck my three engineering class assignments HELLO how are u  
gonna proofread the rest of this chapter like. idk soon. if its stupid and wack and ure like wow stupid bitch idk yell at me for it links below you know the drill im a broken record player *yoda voice* tired i am sleep i will not  
hi anyway ummmmmmmmm taeni. thats happening thats haaha..ahhahahaha. awesome fresh and fun. but ohhh nooo theres... Drama with... their past and... oh hh hhh hh noooooo angst... thats coming toooooooooo you know the drill weve been through this before if youve read my other fics you know what i do its all i know how to do  
it is. midnight. a bitch is tired a bitch is me a bitch is elise HI im elise  
i love you im sorry for. ^  
please sleep if its late for you too literally go to bed dont do what im doing i love you so much if its not late for you please have a good day you deserve it i love you so so so so so much  
i love you  
a lot  
okay  
bye  
<3  
-elise
> 
> my cc: @blossomfic  
my twt: @blossomfic


	7. drown

Youngbin hadn’t stayed at the lab for long after the corpse had washed up in the parking lot. He’d grabbed Juho the moment he got back inside, not wanting to explain the situation before he ushered him back to the door, clutching his hand tightly as he led him to the truck .

Juho hadn’t said a word. It’s as if he’d known what was outside the moment he saw Youngbin - his face hardened, lips dropping from where they’d jumped into a smile into a discomforted frown. Youngbin hadn’t thought about the fact that it was entirely possible that the other could sense the death of one of his own that easily.

There was nowhere for them to go now; his home was easy to enter, but the lab clearly wasn’t as safe as Youngbin had previously suspected, either. They’re _ fucked _. He had figured that at least he’d have the upper ground in his own home, though, and so he brought himself and Juho back after a careful moment of deliberation.

“Yeah, it’s shattered.” Youngbin murmurs into the phone, watching Juho fiddle uncomfortably with the collar of the jacket he’d been given, eyeing himself curiously in the mirror. “Would you be able to fix it tonight? I won’t be home, I could leave the front door unlocked.”

Juho looks up to check his reflection, turning slightly to see the rest of his outfit in the glass. He’d been given a pair of black jeans and a white shirt from Youngbin along with the black jacket he currently toys with between his fingers. Youngbin was proud of how the outfit had turned out; Juho looked nice. Youngbin’s heart skips when he sees the other, and each time he looks away he can’t help but force his gaze back, lovingly focusing on the way Juho’s eyes look into his reflection. The merman meets his gaze, blinks, and grins shyly before looking away bashfully.

“That sounds perfect. Thank you.” Youngbin finishes the call a moment later, setting his phone on his lap. He sits on the edge of his bed, the comforter he and Juho had dragged from the lab hanging off of the mattress and pooling on the floor messily. “They’re gonna get the window fixed tonight, by the time we get back it’ll be all good.”

Youngbin hadn’t wanted to cancel his plans with Inseong, even after seeing the girl on the pavement. He wants at least one normal night with Juho, and would be damned to let it slip away that easily. “Are you ready to go?” He stands up, crossing the room to stand behind Juho before he locks his hands around the other’s waist, dotingly pulling him backwards to press him against his chest. “You look good.”

Exhaustion laces Juho’s words. “Do I?”

“Mm-hmm…” Youngbin rests his head against the other’s, looking at him through the mirror’s reflection. “You sound tired.”

“I’m tired of running.”

Youngbin tenses, letting his gaze slide sullenly to the floor. He chuckles sadly, his grip tightening on the other protectively. “Well, what else can we do?” It’s pathetic, the way that there’s no correct answer. They couldn’t keep running, but they had to try. If they stopped, reality would catch up to them. Taeyang would come back to take Juho. 

Time is their worst enemy, each hour potentially being their last together. The minutes become desperate the longer they spend without worrying about being torn apart.

“Give up.” Juho states simply, tone filled with a resigned defeat. “There’s nothing else we _ can _ do.”

“Don’t say that…” Youngbin knows it’s true, but can’t bring himself to come to terms with the fact that he’d be losing the other. He knows it would be easier if the other was leaving on his own accord, disappearing underneath the waves he’d been found in. Knowing that he’d be forced to leave with somebody he didn’t know, though, to do whatever Taeyang requested after being taken… Youngbin didn’t want to let it happen.

So, his demeanor becomes as desperate as their stretched time, and Youngbin squeezes his eyes shut for a moment and wills for a free second to breathe.

Youngbin knows he’d gladly take the wrath of whatever force wanted to separate him from Juho if it meant he could protect the other. 

His hands skirt up to the other’s sides, and Youngbin feels the soft crinkle of fresh bandages underneath Juho’s clothes. His wound had been reopened, but it hadn’t been serious. Youngbin had checked it and reapplied the bandages when they’d gotten home. “How does this feel?” He murmurs, deciding to change the course of the conversation. 

Juho leans back, closing his eyes. “Better.” 

Youngbin can’t bear the idea of losing him. “That’s good.”

“Should we get going?”

Youngbin takes a sparing look at himself in the mirror; a black shirt, light jeans, and his coat make up his outfit. He nods, raising his hand to adjust his bangs, before he follows Juho to the door. “You’ll like Inseong,” he starts, smiling faintly. “Sanghyuk, too.”

“If you like them, then I do too.” Juho hums, spinning on his heel to face Youngbin. His smile lights up the dark room, and he falls forward into the other’s arms, completely trusting that Youngbin will catch him. 

All that’s caught is Youngbin off guard; he nearly drops Juho, but recovers smoothly and raises the other. Juho’s eyes are wide. 

“That was fun.”

“Was it?” Youngbin chokes, staring in shock at the other before a disbelieving smile crosses his face. “Dumbass. Be more careful,” he ruffles the other’s hair before walking across the room to grab his shoes, sliding them on quickly. Juho follows his lead, pouting at the nickname Youngbin had chosen to give him. “I almost dropped you.”

“Dumbass…” Juho repeats bitterly. “_ You’re _ dumbass.”

“I’m dumbass?” Youngbin smiles, raising his eyebrows. “Am I?”

“Yeah.” Juho scrunches his nose up, and Youngbin reaches over to run his hand through the other’s hair. He takes a moment to lean down, connecting their lips for a fraction of a second before he pulls away. Juho pouts, following closely after his lips before ultimately losing in the chase. He leans back dejectedly, opting to instead grab Youngbin's hand.

“Let’s go.”

  
  


They don’t make it even twenty minutes down the road before Youngbin’s forced to pull over, Juho pressing his hands tightly against his head in the seat next to him. His eyes are wide open, staring forward with tears filling them at a steady pace. Youngbin can’t tell if it’s because he hadn’t blinked or because of the pain he must be in. 

“What’s wrong?” Youngbin questions, worry seeping through his tone as the only sound Juho manages to answer him with is something murmured and pained. He reaches a hand tentatively towards the other, letting it rest easily on his forearm comfortingly. “Juho?”

“I don’t…” Juho whispers, shaking his head suddenly. A stray tear slips down his cheek, but he holds the others back skillfully. Youngbin reaches up to wipe the tear away with a finger, letting the digit continue to roll over the other’s cheek after he’d cleared the wetness away.

“What’s wrong?”

After a moment of silence, Juho shakes his head again. “It hurts.”

Juho pitches forward suddenly, his hands dropping from the sides of his head to instead cover his nose and mouth. Youngbin pulls his hand away quickly and watches Juho’s twitch, sees blood seep past his fingertips each time he flexes them. It’s red and bright, unnatural in the low light of the car.

It’s far too much to be from just a nosebleed. The blood runs down his hands quickly, soaking them in seconds before dripping down onto his lap. Spatters of the liquid jump onto his shirt and collar, the rest pooling on his hands and atop his legs steadily. 

“Shit, Juho!” Youngbin gasps, flipping open the center console in a rapid attempt to grab a handful of napkins. He pushes them into the other’s hands, which grasp for them aggressively. Juho pins the white napkins to his nose, choking as he tries to speak. 

“I don’t feel good.” He mumbles. Youngbin scoffs pitifully, eyes softening as he looks to the other.

“Come on, let’s get some fresh air.” Youngbin throws his car door open, sliding out of his seat before his shoes hit the cold blacktop beneath. He slams the door behind himself and steps around to Juho’s side of the car, opening the door gently.

A light shines behind him, and Youngbin glances over his shoulder to see a car approaching them distantly on the highway. He doesn’t think much of it, assuming they’ll just pass by since Youngbin had pulled over, and goes back to helping Juho out of the car.

Juho holds tightly onto Youngbin’s hand as he steps out of the car, leaning against him when he’s standing. “Sorry,” he mumbles, fingers flexing over Youngbin’s. Blood sticks to Youngbin’s hand, and the man shrugs as he finds himself forgetting about the liquid almost instantly.

Youngbin wraps an arm around his waist, murmuring a soft “you’re okay” against Juho’s dark hair before the taller man’s knees buckle. He stumbles, falling against Youngbin as his body’s pulled towards the ground in a jerking manner. Youngbin gasps, catching him just before he can hit the pavement.

“Fuck, Juho!”

“You should let him go.”

Youngbin freezes, hearing a chilling voice behind himself. It’s then that he realizes the light that’s been illuminating them hadn’t peeled away like he’d expected it to. Out of the corner of his eye, he can see the source of it. He can hear the other car humming as whoever had been inside of it now stands behind Youngbin, encouraging him to let go of Juho.

Hesitantly, after a moment of deliberation on if he really wants to look at the stranger, Youngbin turns around.

“Jaeyoon?”

Jaeyoon smiles, but it doesn’t reach his eyes. A sadistic flip of the corners of his lips upwards, and he’s reaching forward and seizing Youngbin’s shirt collar. “You should have let him go with Taeyang.” He hums, eyes lighting up with humor. “My plans are a lot worse.”

“What the fuck are you talking about?!” Youngbin reaches upwards, grappling for control over Jaeyoon’s hand with both of his. The other’s sudden strength alarms him, but what sets his nerves on fire is when his bloodied hand causes Jaeyoon to stifle a groan. 

Jaeyoon pulls Youngbin closer; he glances to Juho, who kneels defenseless on the pavement, and lets his fingers crawl to surround Youngbin’s throat. “You’re an idiot.”

Juho looks up, eyes widening at the sight of Jaeyoon. “You said you wouldn’t hurt him.” He whispers. Youngbin turns to look at him, choking on his fear as Jaeyoon’s hand playfully squeezes the sides of his neck. 

“What are you talking about?” At Juho’s panicked silence, Youngbin’s tone sharpens. “What the hell are you talking about!?”

Jaeyoon looks past Youngbin to gaze at Juho, smiling softly. “I’m _ not _ going to hurt him.” He starts, fingers suddenly tightening around Youngbin harshly. The brunette gasps, desperate to breathe even though Jaeyoon refuses to allow him to. 

Before Youngbin blacks out, with darkening spots dancing in his vision and his senses swimming, he hears Jaeyoon finish his statement. 

“I’m gonna hurt _ you _.”

* * *

“I like this one.”

Chanhee whistles, shuddering in his coat as he shoves his hands into his pockets. The snow comes down around the two heavily, sticking to the dirt beneath their shoes in soft white clumps. “I mean, it’s nice…”

Taeyang shrugs, glancing at the younger. “You’re cold?”

Without answering, Chanhee steps closer to the older. Taeyang smiles, unzipping his jacket before pulling the sides apart, allowing Chanhee to press against his chest. He closes the sides around the younger, pinning him against himself underneath the thick jacket.

“Is that better?” He teases gently, earning a quick nod from Chanhee. “Good. Okay, so I like this one.”

The two stand in a deserted car lot, the dealership having closed earlier that evening due to the nasty weather. The roads had become slick and dangerous to drive on; Taeyang vaguely remembers Inseong saying something about needing to cancel with Youngbin after he and Sanghyuk had gotten home. Taeyang motions to an older vehicle, and when Chanhee takes a quick look at it, he shakes his head.

“This one’s no good.”

“What?” Taeyang scoffs. “Why?! Look at it- it’s fucking purple.”

“It’s also falling apart. Come on, we can find a better one.”

Grumbling, Taeyang agrees with Chanhee and awkwardly shuffles the two of them towards another car. Chanhee shuts the other down before he can even say he likes the car in front of them; it has false eyelashes glued on over the headlights. Taeyang thinks its funny; Chanhee can feel him laughing. “It’s not gonna work.”

“Oh, come on!” Taeyang hisses. “You’re so picky.”

“I don’t want to be seen in a car with false lashes, Taeyang!”

“It’s funny!”

“It’s _ stupid _!”

“Fuck, fine!” Taeyang grumbles. “It _ is _ getting cold… Let’s just pick one out.”

Chanhee hums, looking around the lot from where he’s pinned against Taeyang. Taeyang hesitantly lets go of the younger, stepping away and towards another vehicle when the two separate from one another. “What about this one?” Taeyang motions to another car. It’s nothing special, but Chanhee nods after a moment of carefully judging it. 

“Think you can sneak inside and grab the keys for it?”

“Obviously.” Taeyang scoffs, walking towards the large building surrounded by cars in the lot. “Which number is it?”

“27,” Chanhee hums finally, squinting to read the label that’s plastered against the inside of the windshield. “If it helps, the label’s pink.”

“We should paint the car pink,” Taeyang starts, but before Chanhee can shoot down the idea the older vanishes. Chanhee pulls his lips together tightly, staring at the shadows that line the outside of the building. 

Hoping Taeyang’s still outside and can hear him, the younger shouts aggressively, “we are _ not _ painting the car pink!”

Chanhee’s idea for the night hadn’t been robbing a car dealership. Committing grand theft auto wasn’t on his to-do list, and he wasn’t happy about it in the slightest. Though, Taeyang needed a vehicle, and Chanhee wasn’t going to stop him from taking what he needed _ or _ what he wanted. 

Ideally, Chanhee had envisioned cuddling on the couch, maybe falling asleep wrapped in the other’s arms… But this was never what Chanhee expected when Taeyang had told him, ‘_ I have a crazy idea. _’ To Taeyang, crazy was any form of physical affection that didn’t end in something violent or breathless. 

Chanhee leans over the car, wiping a thin layer of snow off of the hood as he tries to envision the rest of his life. He’d told Inseong he was leaving, but hadn’t stayed to hear what his brother had to say about it. He didn’t even leave the other a chance to speak his mind; Chanhee had left his phone on the counter in the kitchen. 

Inseong was overprotective, but Chanhee was legal. If Chanhee left, it was his choice entirely. He didn’t _ need _ Inseong, not in the eyes of the law. He was independent. 

He has maybe an hour to change his mind, but he doubts he’s going to. He’d given himself completely to Taeyang, and it was too late to leave him. Chanhee knew this would happen; he had _ dreaded _ seeing Taeyang again because he knew he’d once again be trapped by the siren. 

But he doesn’t hate it.

His breath fogs the air on the windshield when he tries to look inside of the car, squinting to see the interior as he waits for Taeyang to come back with the keys. They’d cut a hole through the back fence with bolt cutters Taeyang had stolen from God knows where. The man was capable of much more than he let on -- Chanhee pities whoever dared to cross the siren.

Chanhee jumps when he feels a hand on his hip, and he turns quickly to see Taeyang spinning the keys proudly around his finger. “I left a note.” He informs the younger as he takes a step back, making a show out of parading to the driver’s side of the car to unlock the door.

“Yeah?” Chanhee smirks, beginning to walk back towards the fence. “What does it say?”

Taeyang opens the door to the car, sliding inside before shoving the keys into the ignition. Chanhee hears the engine start before he hears the door slam and the window roll down. With the lights off, Taeyang navigates the car backwards hanging halfway out of the window to see the space behind the vehicle. 

When Chanhee’s led him back to the slice in the wire, he picks up the bolt cutters from where they’d previously been leaned against the fence before beginning to chop into the mesh wire. As he works, Taeyang puts the car in park before stepping out, coming to stand behind Chanhee. He wraps his arms around the younger, pressing against his back as he cuts a space large enough for the car to fit through. 

“I thanked them for the cash they left laying out on the desk…” Taeyang muses, chuckling against Chanhee’s hair as he rests his face against the other’s head. 

“You didn’t.”

Taeyang shrugs, pulling Chanhee closer as he finishes cutting the wire in a rough mockery of the width and height of the vehicle. “Maybe I did, maybe I didn’t. Either way, my pockets feel heavy.”

“You’re awful.” Chanhee grins, leaning back into the other when he’s finally done. “Let’s get the fuck out of here before somebody sees us.”

Inseong had amassed a collection of license plates in the basement. He’d kept almost every set he’d had since he was in high school. Something about the memories, or whatever. Chanhee had taken a set of them before he’d left, shoved them in the back of his bag. They had sat there heavily, right behind the bundle of clothes Chanhee had shoved into the bag until Taeyang had picked them out and screwed them into the back and front of the car they’d stolen.

Now, Chanhee sits in the passenger seat and stares blankly at the road ahead of them.

“What happens if somebody runs the plates?”

“We shouldn’t worry until tomorrow.”

Chanhee glances over at Taeyang, who pulls onto the highway carelessly. “What’s tomorrow?”

“Well, you know. When the dealership opens and sees the hole in their fence and the cash gone from their safe.”

Chanhee blinks. He can pretend he’s shocked, but he really isn’t. “You said you got it from their desk.”

“Yeah… The safe was under the desk.” Taeyang hums. “But hey, we can buy dinner tonight. What are you in the mood for?”

“Not getting arrested.”

“Cute.”

Chanhee’s thankful the roads are dead. He could only imagine what would happen if the two got pulled over, or if a cop ran their plates and saw that not only were they expired, but that the car itself was just stolen from one of the few dealerships in the area. The highway is empty, though, and Chanhee feels he can relax just a bit. “So… We get Juho.”

“Yeah.”

“And then?”

Taeyang looks to the younger, raising an eyebrow curiously. “We run like hell. What did you think came next?”

Chanhee shrugs, smiling slightly. “Dunno.”

A pleasant silence fills the car, and Taeyang breaks it only once as he sighs, his hand falling from the steering wheel onto Chanhee’s, which resides on the younger’s lap idly. Taeyang intertwines their fingers, squeezing the other’s hand softly as he continues to drive. 

A car on the side of the highway causes them to pull over, however. Chanhee notices it first, laughing a bit as he points out how eerie it is that a car exactly like Youngbin’s sits with its lights off on the side of the road. 

Taeyang’s the one to get out of the car first, leaving Chanhee behind in the running vehicle as he cautiously approaches Youngbin’s, worriedly running his fingers over the zipper on his jacket. 

“Youngbin?” He calls quietly, smelling blood and another siren all at once. It immobilizes him for just a second, but it’s enough to leave his hands shaking and his body trembling as he continues walking towards the car. 

Quickly, as if trying to startle the situation into disappearing entirely, Taeyang strikes the car’s door handle so it swings open. He jumps back though nothing blatantly obvious attempts to grab for him, and hesitantly Taeyang approaches the door again. 

“Youngbin?”

Said brunette leans against the steering wheel with his arms hanging limp in the space beneath him, his cheek pressed against the wheel. 

“Are you dead?” Taeyang grimaces, reaching a cautious finger forward to push against Youngbin’s shoulder. The brunette jerks backwards and Taeyang screams, ducking backwards as Youngbin wakes up. 

“Where is he?”

Youngbin’s voice is choked, and he looks worriedly to the seat beside him. His movements are groggy, but he’s alert enough to remember everything of what had happened before he’d blacked out. Taeyang’s sure of it. “Who?”

“Juho.”

“Who was here, I mean?”

Youngbin shakes his head, looking over to Taeyang. The siren almost pities him; his eyes are wide and disbelieving, lips parted and shaking slightly though the rest of his body appears stoic. “Jaeyoon.”

Taeyang sucks in a sharp breath through his teeth, whining as he takes a step back further. The snow had begun to come down more gently, and it whispers through Taeyang’s hair as he looks around the scene. “Is that the guy from your work?”

“Yeah.”

“Oh, fuck me, man…” Taeyang whimpers, stomping his foot childishly on the pavement. “I don’t like him…” 

Taeyang wonders how bad it would be if he just left Juho behind and ran with Chanhee, but knows that leaving Juho behind isn’t a possibility. Agitated, he rakes a hand through his hair and glares at Youngbin. “You think they’re at the lab?”

“It’s a safe bet,” Youngbin murmurs after Taeyang says it, sitting up before gently rubbing the side of his neck. Taeyang winces when he sees the bruises forming on it. “Is that where we’re going?”

“I’ll follow you there.”

Before Youngbin can respond, Taeyang slams the door shut and runs back to his own car. He already claims it as his own; if he got arrested for having stolen the car, he’d go down for it no hesitation. He was in love. 

“What’s going on?” Chanhee pitches forward when Taeyang gets back into the car, eyes widening when he watches the truck in front of them pull away from the curb. “Was that actually-”

“-Don’t ask questions.”

Taeyang puts the car into drive and slams on the gas, the vehicle jerking forwards before accelerating down the slick road. Against Chanhee’s protests to slow down, Taeyang only speeds up, drumming his fingers impatiently against the steering wheel. 

Chanhee crosses his arms, frowning at the siren. “Tell me what’s going on or I throw the cash you stole out of the fucking window.”

“You don’t know where I put-”

“-it’s in the glove box underneath the driver’s manual.”

Taeyang purses his lips, cocking his head to the side as he debates between telling Chanhee or losing all of the money he hadn’t worked for. He decides the former is safer, and shrugs. “Gotta go get Juho from some other siren.”

“I’m sorry, I don’t think I heard you right.” Chanhee smiles, panic hiding behind his features. “Another siren?”

“Remember Jaeyoon?”

Chanhee’s smile falls. Taeyang can’t tell if the younger’s even breathing as he stares back at him, doe eyes unblinking as he watches Taeyang. “Like, _ Jaeyoon _ Jaeyoon? The one who fucked this entire thing up in the first place?” Taeyang remains silent; Chanhee grits his teeth. “Like, the one who took a sword and shoved it through -”

“_ Yes _ , fuck! _ That _ Jaeyoon!” Taeyang hisses, pulling off of the highway roughly behind Youngbin. “Yeah, he’s here. I don’t know if he remembers.”

“Who do you think does?”

Taeyang shrugs, biting his lip. “You and me. Sanghyuk maybe, he seems like he’s acting sometimes around us, you notice that?”

“A bit, I just thought he didn’t like me.”

“No, he always liked you. You’re like his annoying little brother.”

“_ Hey _!” Chanhee argues, pouting. “I’m not annoying.”

“Mm…” Taeyang waves the comment off, feeling his heartbeat increase ever so slightly as he pulls into a parking space besides Youngbin in the lab’s lot. Youngbin’s already stepping out of his car, eyes alight with a flame Taeyang feels drawn towards. “Stay in the car.”

“What? No way,” Chanhee unbuckles his seatbelt, unlocking his door, “I can fight.”

“Like hell you can. I’m not risking you getting hurt.” At the commanding tone in Taeyang’s voice, Chanhee sinks down in his seat and nods dully. 

“Come back in one piece, okay?”

“Don’t-”

“_ Promise _ me you’re coming back.” Chanhee sits up, biting his tongue as he stares up at Taeyang. He reaches over and grabs his arm, gripping it tightly underneath his nails. Taeyang winces. “Say it or I’m going in with you.”

“I promise,” Taeyang nods, pulling the younger’s hand off of himself before he brings it to his lips, repeating his words against the other’s skin quietly. 

Youngbin hears Taeyang run up beside him as he’s opening the front door, and he looks over to the siren as he steps inside. “We aren’t friends,” the brunette starts, frowning. “I’m taking Juho home with me when this is over.”

Taeyang nods, but after a moment of the two walking down the hallway he pauses. Youngbin stops ahead of him, annoyed by the other’s sudden stillness. “What?” 

“He’s gonna die.”

Youngbin feels his heart skip a beat before he’s sent spiraling. He keeps his calm on the outside, widening his eyes slightly at the other as inside he panics. “What?”

“He’s been out of the water for too long. The pool here isn’t like the ocean -- it’s like if you were in a room filling with carbon monoxide. You can still breathe, but you’re not gonna know why you feel so bad until you’re about to kick it.” Taeyang raises his eyebrows gently. Youngbin shakes his head, trying not to listen to the other. 

“You’re lying.”

“I’m _ not _. My days are limited too, I need to get Juho out of here to save him.”

Youngbin takes a step back, glancing up towards the ceiling to avoid eye contact with the siren. 

He doesn’t want to believe him - he _ can’t _. But he knows that if he doesn’t listen, and if Taeyang’s telling the truth, then Juho’s going to die. Youngbin can’t bring himself to take that risk. Juho’s life was more important to him than anything else. 

Turning on his heel, Youngbin continues walking down the hallway. Taeyang runs for a moment to catch up to him. “You wouldn’t lie to me just to get Juho,” Youngbin tries to convince himself when he asks the question, and his heart sinks when Taeyang sounds convincing enough for Youngbin to believe him. 

“Of course not. There’s a lot you don’t know, Youngbin.” Taeyang murmurs, falling into step besides the brunette. They walk into the lobby and Taeyang immediately looks to the observation room, his breath hitching as he looks at the darkened room. “There.”

Youngbin approaches it, but Taeyang steps ahead of him. The brunette tries to stop him from opening the door so they can at least form a plan; but, as storms do, Taeyang tears into the room aggressively, not waiting for Youngbin. Youngbin flips the lights on when he steps into the observation room behind Taeyang, and after a delayed second the lights flicker to life.

He wishes they hadn’t.

Youngbin really, _ really _wishes the lights had flickered out, or better yet, wishes they’d refused to turn on. Instead, he’d illuminated a bloody poolside and Juho held fast in Jaeyoon’s lap, the wound on his side bleeding violently while a new gash on his chest drips down his skin horribly. 

“Wow, both of you came?” Jaeyoon raises his eyebrows, smiling innocently. “I mean, one of you I warned,” his gaze skirts over Taeyang, “and one of you doesn’t have a chance.” Youngbin doesn’t need to make eye contact with Jaeyoon to know he’s the outskilled one in the room. He’s one human in a room full of sirens - and, well, one merman, but was the difference so great?

“Let him go.”

“He’s dying anyway.” Jaeyoon hums, pressing his fingers against the wound on Juho’s chest. He brings them to his mouth a moment later, staring back at Taeyang as he runs his tongue over his bloodied digits. “You want him so bad? _ Come get him _.”

Jaeyoon’s on the edge of the pool, legs wrapped around Juho’s waist as he pins him against himself. Taeyang freezes, raising a finger as if about to protest. 

Youngbin’s the one to lunge for Jaeyoon, to hit the water with the other locked in his arms. It takes two seconds for Jaeyoon to be on him, but in that time Juho’s able to get away, able to be dragged back by Taeyang, who envelops him into his arms tightly; protectively. 

“I’ve got you,” he whispers, holding the other’s shaking body. 

Youngbin tries to get away, but he feels Jaeyoon wrapping an arm around his hips before he’s yanked underneath the water. He tries not to panic, tries to hold his breath, but Jaeyoon’s other hand shoots up to his mouth. 

Jaeyoon toys with Youngbin’s life, holding it in front of the human so he can watch it get ripped away when Jaeyoon forces his fingers past his lips, holding his jaw down so he can’t force it shut when the water begins rushing into his throat. 

Youngbin chokes, gasping involuntarily before he feels the water rush into his nose and lungs. He struggles against Jaeyoon, his chest lighting up with fire as he drowns. Jaeyoon holds him easily, letting him fight. 

“He means that much to you?”

Youngbin hates how clear the other’s voice is, and in a last ditch effort to get away, throws his head back. It slams into Jaeyoon, who cries out and reflexively lets go of Youngbin to instead grab at his nose, which had begun bleeding the moment Youngbin had rammed against it. 

The moment Youngbin hits the surface, fingers crawling for the edge of the pool to pull himself up, he feels a hand wrap around his ankle. He continues to choke on water, but he manages to take a breath before he’s yanked back under. 

In the time he’d resurfaced, Youngbin hadn’t seen Juho or Taeyang. 

He’d rather they left. Youngbin doesn’t want them to die, but he can’t imagine that he’s going to survive much longer. He was nothing compared to Jaeyoon, who easily wraps around him again before dragging him deeper. 

“Idiot,” his tone is lost within the depths, but Youngbin can still hear him oddly clearly. It’s watery, monotonous. He writhes against the other’s grip before he falls still, knowing that now it was pointless. Jaeyoon pins him to his chest, arms wrapped around Youngbin’s waist while his tail curls teasingly around his ankles. “I didn’t want _ you _ to get hurt.”

Youngbin closes his eyes, imagines Juho alive and well, and realizes he’s okay with dying. 

For a moment. 

Then Youngbin rocks back, fighting again against Jaeyoon. Fuck, he didn’t want to _ die _ . Who the fuck was okay with dying? Not Youngbin, not now. Not at the bottom of a pool at his _ work _. 

Jaeyoon holds him easily, but falters when the water breaks above the two. Youngbin feels the other’s grip slacken once again, and he takes the opportunity to get away, this time managing to swing himself over the edge of the pool, his hands slipping over blood as he pulls himself onto the slick, tiled floor. 

Choking, he drags himself to his knees, spitting the water he’d breathed in on the tiles beneath himself. 

A hand comes down gently onto his back, and he turns to see Juho kneeling next to him, eyes wide with worry as his wounds continue to bleed, his concern for himself obviously buried underneath concern for Youngbin. 

“Are you okay?” Youngbin nods. Juho continues. “Let me stay with you.”

It’s then that Youngbin sees the truth behind the situation. If he didn’t force Juho away, the man - the _ creature _, wouldn’t leave. Youngbin feels his heart crack when he looks away, sitting back. “I want you to leave.”

Juho freezes, hand poised above Youngbin’s back as he continues kneeling, his position in a shocked state of pause. It’s as if Youngbin had flipped a switch; Juho’s completely still, eyes trained on the floor as he processes what Youngbin had said. 

“You… You want me to go?”

“Yeah.” Youngbin whispers, glancing at Juho. The other’s now looking at him, eyebrows drawn downwards with confusion. “I want you gone.”

“Why?” Juho smiles falsely, swallowing thickly around his words. “Did I… Did I do something wrong?”

Youngbin winces, closing his eyes as he tries to ground himself in the facts. Juho would die if he didn’t leave; he’s sure of it now, after hearing what Jaeyoon had said so positively to Taeyang. _ He’s dying anyway _. His only chance to live was with Taeyang, and no matter how much Youngbin disliked it, he wouldn’t be able to change it.

So, he lies. Youngbin opens his eyes, begs silently for forgiveness he’ll never receive from Juho, and continues to lie to him. “I don’t want you here.”

“_Why._" Juho doesn’t fight it, but his tone becomes agitated as Youngbin dances around his reasoning. “But _ why _?”

“Because I fucking hate you. Just get the fuck out.”

Juho falls silent, nodding dully as he looks towards the pool. Youngbin follows his gaze and sees Taeyang pulling himself over the edge, scratches down the side of his face bleeding as he looks to the two. “Did I interrupt-”

“-Let’s go.”

Juho doesn’t leave room for an answer. He turns on his heel and leaves, bleeding and hurt towards the door. Taeyang parts his lips, looking between the crushed merman and the human, eyes questioning when they finally settle on Youngbin. “What… What did you..?”

Youngbin looks coldly up to Taeyang, whose question falls short as Youngbin’s stare paralyzes him.

“Get the fuck out.”

“Youngbin-”

“I never want to see you again.”

Taeyang nods, watching Juho leave the room before he begins following him. “Jaeyoon’s just knocked out. I didn’t have the heart to kill him,” he starts as he reaches for the doorknob, looking back to Youngbin, “so I’d get out of here for a little while.”

Youngbin turns away from him, staying in his place on the tiled floor until he hears the door open and close. Faintly, a cold breeze washes over him, but he doesn’t mind it. He’s numbed from the inside out, holding onto a false hope that Juho understood why he’d been sent away. 

It’s pointless, though. Deep down, Youngbin knows the other doesn’t understand. How could he? Youngbin had left him no room to know the truth; he’s sure Juho doesn’t even know he’s dying. He would have said something if he knew, Youngbin was sure. 

Only after he’s sure he’d given Taeyang enough time to leave, he stands up and heads for the door. 

A hand clasps around his ankle as he walks, and he looks down to see Jaeyoon with his head down against the tiles, clinging weakly to his leg as he hangs halfway off of the edge of the pool. 

As if he’s made of glass, Youngbin reaches down and carefully peels Jaeyoon’s fingers off of himself. Jaeyoon glares up at him but doesn’t fight it, eyes narrowed when Youngbin scoffs softly. “You’ve done enough,” he whispers, shaking his head. “I didn’t think I could ever hate someone as much as I hate you.”

* * *

“Is that okay?”

Chanhee leans back in the backseat, smiling faintly as he finishes bandaging the last of Juho’s wounds. The man says nothing, eyes locked on the floor of the car as Chanhee tries to initiate a conversation with him. “If you feel any discomfort, I have painkillers in my bag, okay..?” His smile falls when Juho remains stoic, his gaze only lifting to acknowledge Chanhee for a moment before falling again. 

The youngest of the three nods, chewing on his lower lip as he sits down on the center console, pushing himself back towards the front to fall into the passenger seat. He falls back into it, swinging his legs awkwardly over Taeyang’s shoulder to sit down correctly in the seat. 

Taeyang looks to him for a moment, pinning his tongue between his teeth before he turns away, as if refusing to allow himself to speak. 

Chanhee tries to fill the silence, fidgeting in the seat nervously as he finds he can’t take how uncomfortable the quiet makes him feel. From living with Inseong and Sanghyuk, he wasn’t used to quiet. Especially a tense quiet; he feels like it’s about to swallow him whole.

“So… So where are we going?”

Taeyang looks up to the mirror, gaze scanning a car behind them to make sure it isn’t something they should be worried about before he speaks. “The water’s cold up here. We’re gonna drive south until we hit the coast. There’s a little town and a guy with a boat, I’ve heard about him from a few other sirens. He’ll take us to an island.”

Chanhee nods, knowing that Taeyang was tired and probably didn’t want to give him all of the details now. But the silence nags at him when it falls heavily on his shoulders when Taeyang finishes speaking, and he continues asking him questions. “What island?”

“An island.”

“But, like… Is it a _ cool _ island, or..?”

“Chanhee,” Taeyang starts tiredly, “it’s an island where people won’t give a fuck if they see some guy with a tail in the water. Okay?” He doesn’t say it aggressively, but an exhausted sigh follows his words. 

“We don’t have to leave tonight…” Chanhee muses, looking back to see Juho with his eyes closed, leaning back against the seat, surrendering into the situation. The younger looks back to Taeyang, gaze soft as he reaches over to grab one of his hands. “Let’s pull over.”

“If we don’t get out of here tonight,” Taeyang starts, “they’re gonna find the stolen car. And my charm isn’t gonna get us out of that, okay? It’ll get us out of being pulled over, not an entire squad tracking us down. We’re gonna get as close as we can to the coast without arousing suspicion, then we’re gonna walk.”

Chanhee nods dully, frowning as he leans back. He pulls his hand away when Taeyang doesn’t react to it, but the siren quickly reaches for it again to hold it, fingers wrapping around Chanhee’s gently. “Get some sleep,” he whispers, looking into the mirror to check on Juho. “It’s been a rough night.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> blep 1 chapter left 
> 
> twt: @seafic  
cc: @seafic


	8. i wanna be yours again

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> tw; dark themes

South isn’t as far as Taeyang had made it appear. It’s in front of the car come morning, unfolding into a tiny coastal town that looks abandoned the less Juho squints at it. It’s not welcoming; in fact, Juho’s slightly concerned for his own safety going into it. He can sense Taeyang on edge as well, eyeing the fishing docks warily while rickety boats line the polluted, dull water like the walls of a cage.

“You’re sure this is the right place..?” Chanhee murmurs, gripping his bag a bit tighter in the front seat. Taeyang nods, fingers drumming nervously against the steering wheel as the grey sky hangs over the car like a blanket. “Sure looks… Inviting,” he quips, earning a light, humorless chuckle from Taeyang.

Juho winces when they hit a bump in the road, pressing a hand to his aching chest. Taeyang glances in the mirror and apologizes, frowning. He asks how Juho’s injuries feel. The latter lies and says he isn’t in much pain.

Juho’s body is alight. Underneath his skin, his blood and bones ache and burn with an undying fire. It had been struck the night prior, and had blazed through the entire drive to the town. He assumes a bit of the pain came as punishment for getting close to another siren while he was claimed; the rest must have been from the venom. 

Jaeyoon had poisoned him with it after he’d knocked out Youngbin and thrown him back into his car. Juho was hurt, it was too difficult for him to try to get away. The older had taken advantage of that, pinned Juho to the ground and tore the bandages from his side. 

_ “You promised me,” Juho spat, feeling the other’s lips brush against the exposed gash on his side, “you said-” _

_ “-I know what I said.” Jaeyoon stated, flexing his jaw slightly as he placed his mouth gently on the wound fully, fitting his lips to it. “I said,” he bit down lightly, drawing a discomforted groan from Juho, “that if you were good, I wouldn’t hurt Youngbin. Right? I told you that on the first night you met him.” _

_ Juho closed his eyes, weakly trying to push the other off as he continued to gently sink his teeth into the injury.  _

_ “And then you left, which completely went against the rules,” Jaeyoon continued. “You know, when we first pulled you out of the water, I thought about claiming you.” He pulled away from Juho’s side, eyeing him before lowering his head once again. “And when you woke up, forced everyone away but me because you could tell I was like you… It was  _ so _ hard for me not to take you away right then and there. And then you settled for Youngbin?” _

_ “G-go to-” Juho’s voice pitched upwards when Jaeyoon sunk his teeth fully into the wound, biting down harshly before stilling. Juho’s words tapered off into a pained moan, feeling something cold mix with his blood as Jaeyoon bit down further, pulling away after the cold feeling had faded into his body.  _

_ Laughing quietly, Jaeyoon raised Juho into his arms, the younger finding himself unable to fight as his body immediately flooded with an unnerved calm. He knew the situation was wrong; knew he should fight, yet he couldn’t force himself to through the sedated feeling that took over his body. He felt himself losing it underneath a thick blanket of ease, which only made his subdued panic worsen. _

_ “I mean, seriously? Youngbin?” Jaeyoon shifted Juho in his arms as he walked, opening the back door to his car after he arrived at it. He layed Juho down across the back seats, huffing quietly before he walked around the vehicle to get into the front. “What does he even have?” Jaeyoon glanced back at Juho, scoffing to himself. “You’re gonna black out soon. Just close your eyes and let it happen.” _

_ And, he had. As Juho had blacked out, he heard Jaeyoon murmur something as an afterthought, directed to nobody but the empty space in the vehicle. The words made him shiver, made the gears in his mind spin as he tried to realize or process what the siren had said.  _

_ “You always belonged to me.” _

_ Yet, before Juho could question him, he blacked out. _

“I don’t like this.” Taeyang deadpans finally, pulling the car into the parking lot of an older wooden building. Juho shivers at the sight of it, at the nets hanging on the side of it like spiderwebs, threatening to snare anything that may get too close. Below them are painted fishing rods and buoys, lining the side of the building decoratively. It’s the only color on the building besides for the faded wood.

Behind the building a dock hangs out over the water. Few boats line the wooden walkway, but plenty of cages and tangled nets clutter the space heavily, stacked haphazardly on the edge of the wood.

Chanhee repeats his previous question, looking back to Taeyang worriedly. “You’re  _ sure _ this is the right place? Because  _ this _ kinda looks like a place you shouldn’t be in.”

“Yeah,” Taeyang swallows thickly, “the guys I talked to about it, they described this exact place…”

“And they  _ lived _ to tell you these stories?”

“Well, obviously!”

Juho chimes in suddenly, sitting forward slowly. “Well, we’re already here, right?” At the sudden sound of the other’s voice, Taeyang swings around in his seat to look at him. “We might as well go talk to whoever, right?”

Chanhee nods, reaching down to grab his bag. “Do you know what we need to do to get him to take us?”

Eager to get out of the car, Chanhee swings his door open and steps out. The scent of rotting fish and decay washes into the vehicle immediately, and Juho recoils into himself, raising his shirt collar to his nose in an attempt to hide from the stench. Taeyang gags in front of him, and from somewhere close by Chanhee cries out an  _ oh, fuck! _

Taeyang shuts the car off, leaving the keys in the console before he reaches over to open the glove box. He grabs out a wad of green papers, shoving them into his pocket before he abandons the car. Juho follows after him, stumbling when he stands on his own two feet for the first time since the night before. Taeyang catches him, holding nervously onto his arm for a bit longer than he needs to as he eyes the building. 

Leaning close to Taeyang, Juho whispers quietly to him, confiding in him for just a moment before moving away again. “I don’t like it here.”

“We’ll be away soon,” Taeyang promises, reaching down to grab Juho’s hand. Juho tries to shake him off, but Taeyang holds him tightly. 

For a moment, Juho feels the other shaking, but it’s hidden well when Taeyang begins swinging their arms back and forth playfully, humming to downplay his and Juho’s shared discomfort. 

Chanhee leads them to the front door of the building, pausing to turn and look at the town behind them. Juho follows his gaze, sweeping glances taking in the sight of the fishing town slowly. Chanhee shudders, murmuring a quiet, “it really isn’t pretty at all,” before he turns around and pushes the door open.

Taeyang steps inside before Juho does, hiding the other behind himself protectevily as he begins to look around. Juho doesn’t mind, stepping a bit closer to Taeyang while taking in the room around himself. A glass counter sits at the other end of the square room, and Taeyang approaches it cautiously, stopping a few feet away to pretend he’s inspecting one of the lures displayed behind the glass.

After a few minutes, a door opens behind the counter that must lead to the dock and an older man steps inside, a permanent glower resting on his face as he stares at the group. He looks to be around fifty; his hair is only beginning to turn grey, though his scraggly facial hair had already been turned a lighter shade from what Juho assumes to be tireless work. His eyes are dark and the skin underneath them boasts dark patches like bruises. 

Taeyang doesn’t need to say a thing. The man knows what they’re there for almost immediately, as if he can sense that two of the three came from the ocean he worked on, and another was only partially human. Juho assumes he must be good at his job. He looks Taeyang up and down, crosses his arms, and waits.

Taeyang must realize it, as well, as he stands a bit straighter and more confident as he eyes the man. “We need a ride.” He states firmly, voice low. He leaves no room for an argument, squaring his shoulders as he attempts to make himself look stronger. It works; Juho feels comforted by the fact his presence swallows the room, taking it hostage as he stares at the man.

Chanhee steps back towards Juho, nervous gaze flitting over him for a brief moment before it settles with unease on the older’s face. “What do you think the deal is with the boat?” He whispers just loudly enough for him to hear. Juho shrugs, stepping a bit closer.

“You, maybe? You can’t swim like we can.”

Guilt flashes across Chanhee’s face, and he bites his lip as he returns his attention to Taeyang and the man behind the counter.

“You gonna pay me?”

Taeyang doesn’t respond verbally. He reaches into his pocket, throws the wad of money he’d taken from the car unceremoniously down onto the counter, and takes a step forward. The man nods, swiping the cash up into his grasp before he counts the stack thoroughly. He continues nodding, looking up to Taeyang after he finishes leafing through the bills. “Come back at six tonight. We’ll leave then.”

Without another word, Taeyang turns and grabs Juho and Chanhee each by their wrists, dragging them back with him towards the door. Behind them, a door opens and closes, signalling the man’s exit back outside. 

The group follows his lead, stepping out onto the front steps to face the dull town once again. Taeyang looks over at the car, frowning as he releases the two from his grip. “Go take the license plates off our car.” He instructs Chanhee, who immediately nods and races off to follow the older’s order. When the brunette is out of earshot, Taeyang nudges Juho’s shoulder and motions to a bench in front of the building. 

The bench faces the ocean, which borders the town on each side. Really, the entire area itself stretches out into the water, a tiny peninsula that boasts nothing more than old homes and buildings with water damage. Juho follows Taeyang to the small seat quietly, sitting besides him when the siren finally drops down onto it.

“Let’s talk.”

“About?”

“Anything,” Taeyang looks out to the stretch of wood that sits suspended above the waves about thirty yards away from them. A cold breeze washes over the two, and Juho pulls his arms tight to his chest in hopes to warm himself back up. Taeyang doesn’t seem to mind the weather. “You must have questions.”

“A few,” Juho admits, shivering slightly. He feels Taeyang looking at him, but he can’t bring himself to return the other’s gaze. Instead, he looks up towards the dull, monochromatic sky, watching a bird idly drift through the air without purpose. 

The waves crash viciously behind the building the group had just exited. Juho feels drawn towards them, restlessly kicking his legs as he imagines being back in the ocean. He’s drawn towards it like a moth to a flame, tugged by an invisible cord to the sea that had protected him for the better half of his life. 

Juho wouldn’t say it aloud, but deep within himself he wishes he’d never left it. He wishes he’d stayed out of the bay that night, wishes he hadn’t gotten injured by whatever he’d run into under the waves and blacked out on the surface. At least he would’ve never met Youngbin that way - never would have gotten so attached when he was only going to be forced to leave him anyway.  _ Hurt _ him.

“Well, ask away then.” Taeyang hums, reaching down to knock his hand lightly against Juho’s leg. “We have time.”

“Do you think…” Juho huffs, carding a hand through his hair as he holds back his question, unsure of if he should ask it. He doesn’t know if Taeyang will have an answer, or even know the correct one, but he sighs as he finally finishes asking it. “Do you think he really hates me?”

“Youngbin?” Juho nods. “No, of course not.”

“Then why did he say it?”

“Because you needed to leave,” Taeyang hums gently, looking away finally before pulling his hands together in his lap, letting Juho have his own space. “You would’ve never come with me if he hadn’t said it.”

“Is it that important?”

“We’ll both die if we don’t go back.”

Juho falls silent, sulking as he gnaws gently on his bottom lip. Taeyang glances at him but looks away again quickly, continuing to speak quietly. “You must have felt it, right? I’m just thinking about it now… You knew something was wrong, didn’t you?”

Shrugging, Juho kicks his feet idly. “Thought I might’ve just been getting sick.”

“You didn’t try going back home?”

“I didn’t want to.” Juho murmurs. “I’d rather have stayed with Youngbin.” 

“Why?”

The wind blows past the two coldly, whipping Juho’s dark hair back as he stares forwards. The waves knock against the shore loudly, and the sound of the water slapping the earth echoes through the town like a gunshot. “I feel different when I’m with him.”

Taeyang nods, leaning back so he can look up to the grey sky. The clouds swirl together angrily, threatening a storm as they darken and thicken.

Juho’s legs still, and his sneakers hit the gravel in front of the bench with a soft thud. He pulls his hands together in his lap, rubbing the knuckle of one with the palm of the other, cradling it as if he had injured it somehow. 

“Do you know why we’re here?”

“No.”

Taeyang smiles, closing his eyes. “Even though I’m a siren, I’m a lot weaker than you’d think. I haven’t hunted in a while, and even though Chanhee helped me out a bit, it wasn’t enough to make up for months of starving, you know?” Even though Juho doesn’t understand, he nods. “And, well, swimming long distances takes a lot more energy than walking or driving…” He opens his eyes, looking dully back up towards the sky. “So we had to come here.”

“Why don’t you just go hunting now?”

“Would  _ you _ want to wander off  _ alone _ in this town?” Taeyang turns to look incredulously at Juho, cocking an eyebrow upwards at him. Juho shakes his head, and Taeyang turns away again. “Exactly.”

* * *

Jaeyoon had vanished the day after Youngbin had broken his nose. His things were gone from the lab, and the blood had been cleaned from the side of the pool spotlessly. The only reminder of his existence was his car, with the front smashed against the guardrail on the side of the road. Youngbin had been sent the picture of it by Seokwoo that morning, unsettled by how Jaeyoon had simply vanished. His body wasn’t in the vehicle.

His thoughts jump from Jaeyoon to Juho, like an eternal slideshow that plays whenever he closes his eyes. Open. Close. Juho wraps his slender fingers around Youngbin as if he’s a lifeline. Open. Close. Jaeyoon grabs Youngbin and drags him underneath the water. Open.

Close. Juho on his lap, hair framing his face as he tries to catch his breath. Open.

Close. Jaeyoon and Youngbin inspect the corpse in the parking lot. Open.

Youngbin stares up at his ceiling, deciding against closing his eyes to delay the inevitable seconds he’ll be picturing Juho for. He doesn’t know why he hurts so badly - it had been a mere handful of  _ days _ he’d been involved with Juho. Everything he’d ever heard tells him it’s impossible to fall in love in such a short amount of time, but his heart argues against his intellect. 

Close.  _ Because I fucking hate you _ . Juho’s expression falls, eyes wide around questions that would forever remain unanswered. Open.

Close.  _ Do you believe in past lives? _

_ Not really.  _ Open.

Maybe, Youngbin changes his answer now, silently continuing on the conversation in his own head. He holds the ceiling as his competitor in a staring contest, imagining how he would respond to Juho if he was given the chance to again. Maybe I do believe in them, he might whisper, maybe we’ve met before. And, maybe we’ll meet again. Who knows?

Maybe that’s why he’s considering the fact he’s in love with the other. Youngbin rolls onto his side slowly, staring at the new glass that had been placed over the previously broken window. Maybe we’re destined to find each other. Or maybe we’re not, but against all odds, we did.

Setting his jaw, Youngbin grinds his teeth together.

Close. Jaeyoon is an afterthought now; the slideshow is black. Open.

Youngbin can’t tear himself away from the thought now.  _ Past lives _ . He can still hear Juho saying it, his tone full of indifference as he asked the other what his opinion was on the concept.

Youngbin sits up, burying his head in his hands. Even if they were real, he’d still lost Juho in this lifetime. 

He would die. He would possibly live again, the vicious cycle would repeat. Over and over indefinitely, life after death after life. Ouroboros. 

It’s as if something holds him to the thought, the conversation he’d had with Juho on the couch repeating over and over in his head. It won’t let him think of anything except for the possibility of past lives. Maybe it’s his way of coping; to focus on something entirely unrelated to him and Juho until his pain for losing the other begins to disappear.

Regardless, Youngbin stares at the window and tells himself that forcing Juho out of his life was for the best. He would live now. Youngbin doesn’t understand Taeyang’s reasoning behind any of it, though. They needed to leave to get Juho to the ocean yet they  _ lived _ on the coast. 

It might have to do with acclimating, but Youngbin had just assumed that creatures like Juho and Taeyang could live in all conditions. It doesn’t make much sense, though. None of it does. 

Youngbin just wants to see Juho again. 

He forces himself to forget his questionings and the thoughts he deems unimportant; he just wants to see Juho again. A handful of days had taken Youngbin and thrown him headfirst into something he should’ve never gotten involved with. 

And he loved Juho.

* * *

Taeyang judges the time by the clock hanging on the inside wall of a diner at the end of the street. Every so often, he paces back and forth down the pavement, and each time he passes the diner he eyes the device through the large glass windows on the front of the building, impatiently waiting for the evening to come.

Juho finds comfort in sitting silently besides Chanhee on the dock across the street from the bench he’d spoken to Taeyang on briefly. Juho’s legs hang over the edge of the slick wooden walkway, his feet inches above the water that seems far more tempting than usual. Juho knows the severity of the consequences he’d face if he dropped into the water now, to turn and to disappear beneath the waves, though. Nets and traps sit hidden below the surface, and he knows he’d be too blindsided by the transformation to be able to avoid all of them.

So, Juho lets the water call to him, and he listens idly as he waits for Taeyang to tell him and Chanhee it’s time to leave. 

Chanhee occupies himself by watching the ships in the harbor, swinging his legs which hang in a similar fashion to Juho’s over the edge of the dock. He hums quietly, clearly more at ease than Juho is. And, though the older is discomforted by the situation he’d found himself in, he can’t help but be soothed ever so slightly by the younger’s nonchalance. He figures that if the youngest and most powerless of the three was so calm, then he could risk being the same way.

The fire in his skin had almost faded completely. It now smolders in his veins, only a slight itching sensation that reminds him of the previous night.

The silence becomes unbearable after the second hour passes. Juho tells the time in a different way than Taeyang does; he does so by watching the ships come back towards the shore. They seem to do so at intervals of an hour - one leaves, another returns. Regardless of if it’s simply a coincidence or a schedule he’d caught onto, Juho finds himself impatiently waiting for each ship to return.

“How did you and Taeyang meet?” He finally blurts, not wanting to spend another moment quiet. The sea pulls violently now, an itch underneath Juho’s skin that he can’t scratch. He finds himself pressing his legs together, unconsciously wishing for them to be able to mesh together as they had done countless times before. 

Chanhee looks up to him, shrugging before he pulls his legs up onto the dock underneath himself. “We’ve known each other for a long time.”

“But how did you  _ meet _ ?” Juho stresses the word now, frowning when Chanhee avoids the question, skirting professionally around it.

After realizing he won’t be able to throw the other, Chanhee sighs. “Taeyang used to live on the coast where I did. This was a long,  _ long _ time ago. Lifetimes ago.” Juho quirks a curious eyebrow upwards, but remains silent as Chanhee continues. “One of my friends kept bothering me, and so I went off on my own for a while. I didn’t mean to be gone for long, but I managed to stay out until it was getting dark and I got lost. And it’s not like I could just pull out a phone and call somebody; this was  _ way  _ before any of that.”

Juho nods, more interested with the story than realizing that the other had truly meant  _ lifetimes _ ago. 

“Anyway, I ended up on this really steep hill. I was just walking along the top of it, but I slipped. Ended up twisting my ankle really badly. And at the bottom of the hill it got really rocky, and underneath it led straight into the ocean, right?” Chanhee smiles dully, bringing a hand up to card through his hair. “I went right over the edge of the rocks,” he laughs, shaking his head. “I couldn’t swim because of my injured leg, okay? I really thought I was gonna die, the rocks were way too wet for me to grab ahold of, and I kept getting knocked into them because the water was really rough that night. I think it might have rained? It might have been raining.” 

Chanhee scrunches his eyebrows together as he thinks, his smile drifting into a frown as he concentrates on the details of his story. After a moment his expression softens, and he shrugs as he decides it doesn’t matter that much. “Anyway. I’m under the water and I feel somebody grab onto me. At first I assume I’m either hallucinating or already dead; I couldn’t breathe. So all of a sudden somebody’s holding onto me, and a few seconds later I’m back up on the rocks. I open my eyes and there’s this fucking  _ guy _ just sitting there, leaning over me. And he’s so worried, right? Like, he looks like  _ he _ wants to cry even though  _ I’m _ the one who just nearly died. I’m just chilling, I’m not even freaking out. I’m just too glad I’m not dead, right?”

“It was Taeyang?”

“Who else would it be?” Chanhee quips, smirking. “Yeah. Yeah, It was Taeyang. For a while, he-...” His expression falls, and with a sharp inhale Chanhee turns to look behind the two, gaze shifting over the town solemnly. “I stayed with him for a while…”

“So-”

“-I don’t really wanna talk about it anymore.” Chanhee cuts the older off, smiling apologetically. “How about you tell me about yourself, or something?”

“Oh,” Juho looks down towards the water, watching the waves hit the posts that hold up the dock violently. He draws his eyebrows together, pursing his lips as he tries to come up with something as interesting as Chanhee’s story to tell the other. “Um… When I was younger I spent some time on ships?” He tells Chanhee the same thing he’d told Youngbin when the human had inquired himself about Juho’s personal life. 

Chanhee hums, finally looking back towards the water. “That sounds interesting.”

“Yeah,” Juho nods, clicking his tongue as he tries to come up with at least one memory, “never any big ones, usually just fishing vessels.”

“You  _ wanted _ to get on those?” Chanhee laughs, but his smile doesn’t reach his eyes. Ever since he’d finished his story, his tone had fallen into one of melancholy. “I didn’t take you as reckless.”

“Well,” Juho shrugs, “sometimes when you’re lonely you’ll risk anything for a good conversation. And usually the ships I found were lost, so I would give them directions and they would tell me stories.” 

Chanhee turns to look at Juho, eyeing him curiously. “What kind of stories?”

“All of them. Old mythology, tragedies, legends…”

“Did you ever have a favorite?”

After a few moments of consideration, deliberation between the stories of soulmates and the ocean, Juho chooses neither. “I liked when they talked about the night sky.”

“What about it?”

“That stars granted wishes, or something like that. It’s much cooler to think that stars have properties like that instead of just being pointless lights.”

Chanhee nods, dropping his head to look at the dock. “Yeah,” he nods, “I guess you’re right. I’d like to believe in that, too.” 

“We should wish on them together, then.” Juho smirks. “When we get wherever we’re going.”

“I’d like that.” Chanhee hums. The air is cold, and the water’s even colder. Juho can feel the chill of it from where his feet hang inches above the small waves.

“Then-“

“Time to go.”

Juho turns, eyeing Taeyang curiously. He’d seemingly appeared behind the two from thin air, his arms crossed to show he’s clearly unhappy with something. 

“Is everything okay?” Chanhee stands up, crossing the dock with light steps to stand in front of Taeyang. The older takes a step back. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing. Let’s go.”

* * *

The boat isn’t steady. Juho hadn’t assumed it would be, but the violence of the sea is uncalled for, even by someone who had been born fearing her rage. The tiny vessel is rocked angrily through the water, the ocean threatening to knock it back like a pill.

Chanhee, though locked protectively in Taeyang’s iron grip, is more nervous than anyone else. Even the captain, the old man from the fishing shop that Taeyang had paid greatly, is used to the berating of the ocean. 

“It’s all good,” Juho hears Taeyang call over the sound of the motor, pulling Chanhee closer to himself. “You’re fine.”

Chanhee frowns, turning to look up to Taeyang incredulously. “Am I? Am I  _ really  _ fine, Taeyang?”

“I hope so.”

Juho turns away from the two, instead looking out at the world around them. The sky had darkened significantly, and he frankly can’t tell if it's raining or if the waves are what’s causing the wetness on his head and lap. Regardless, the water is cold and merciless around the boat and Juho wants nothing more than to sink into it. 

Perfect and dark blue, Juho finds himself admiring the sea from the second best place (of course, the first place is reserved by being in the waves themselves) possible. He curiously looks towards Taeyang after a moment, raising his voice to be heard over the screaming waves. “How far are we?”

“Dunno!”

Juho pulls his lips together tightly, impatiently bouncing his leg as he sinks back in his seat. Watching Taeyang act so domestic with Chanhee irritates him,  _ especially _ after finding out that Youngbin hadn’t meant a single word he’d said. To him, this situation is more unfair that any he’d ever been subjected to before.

The reminder that he’s dying comes when Taeyang grabs Juho’s shoulder suddenly, pulling him closer before pressing his sleeve against the underside of the confused merman’s nose. “Shit, Juho! Are you okay?”

“What is it?” Juho mumbles, his tongue suddenly feeling heavier than it normally did. He tastes something disgustingly metallic and cringes. “Oh.”

He understands why Taeyang had intervened, but at the same time, Juho still finds himself unappreciative. He wants Youngbin.

“How do you feel?” Taeyang murmurs, Chanhee locked against his chest with one arm while the other is pressed to Juho’s face.

Juho contemplates the question for a moment. He finds that even when the boat achieves a rare stillness on the waves, he still rocks back and forth. His head hurts a bit, as well. “Bad,” he remarks quietly, smiling softly. “But I’m okay.”

Taeyang’s voice fades out as he responds to Juho. Or, does it? Juho can’t hear much of anything. The world gets darker.

When did he end up on the ground?

When did it start raining?

Whenever Juho blinks, the scene changes around him. Taeyang crouching above him. Chanhee slipping and falling on his ass when a wave threatens to tilt the vessel sideways. He finds the slideshow entertaining, not realizing the danger he’s in when his eyelids seem to close longer than they normally should if he was just blinking. 

He’s jerked back into control when a wave knocks over the edge of the boat and washes over him harshly. Juho sits up quickly, crying out as he raises a hand to his head, attempting to soothe the splitting agony that fills it by rubbing his forehead roughly. The pain had exploded behind his eyes the moment he’d woken back up fully.

Taeyang grabs him by the front of his shirt, pulling him closer to himself before wrapping his arm around the man’s shoulders. He pins both Chanhee and Juho to himself as they’re thrown from side to side in the boat. 

The waves are worse; they tilt the boat nearly fully onto its side - Juho wraps his arms around the two, providing another anchor to keep Chanhee against him and Taeyang.

“Great plan, Taeyang!” Chanhee screams when the group slides through the water that quickly amasses on the floor of the vessel. Unfortunately, Juho’s the one to slam against the side of the boat, and he cries out when he hits it.

“Don’t fucking start with me!” Taeyang hollers back, squeezing the two tightly. “You’re the only one I’m worried about!”

“I should have stayed home!”

“Oh, call Inseong! I bet he’ll come and pick you up right now if you ask him to!”

“Will you two shut the fuck up!?”

At Juho’s sudden interjection, the human and the siren promptly quiet down. The vessel drops down from onto its side, and Juho finds himself relaxing his arms when the group drops onto the floor of the small ship.

The three separate hesitantly, looking around. Taeyang’s the first one to notice that the ship’s motor had cut off, immediately jerking his head in its direction to tell Juho.

Worried, Juho looks towards the captain, who stares straight forward into the suddenly calm water. Something seems wrong, he feels it. The older man is slouched over, his body bent unnaturally as he watches the sea in front of the boat.

And then he notices the blood dripping down onto the floor under the captain’s seat.

“We need to get out of here.” Juho states, sliding backwards on his hands as he stares at the mess ahead of them. Chanhee follows his gaze and drops his jaw, raising his hands to his mouth to cover it as his eyes widen with horror.

Taeyang doesn’t seem surprised. He looks around, closes his eyes for a moment, and inhales gently. 

“There’s another siren here.”

“Thanks for the introduction!” A new voice chimes in behind the group. Juho reaches for Chanhee immediately, pulling the human behind himself after he turns to look at the newcomer.

He looks to be clearly capable of violence. There’s a bloody handprint stamped on his cheek, and he wears it like a badge of honor as he sits proudly on the edge of the ship. His dark hair is soaked, as is the rest of his body, and it hangs down in front of his face. He’s toned; Juho’s sure the stranger could snap his neck without an issue. The only article of clothing he wears is a pair of long red shorts, that hang off of his hips precariously. The cold air looks to not affect him in the slightest.

“What’s your name?” His attention’s fully on Taeyang, locked onto the siren curiously. “You’re not from around here.” The man has a subtle accent when he speaks, and he has a bit of a lisp when he says certain syllables. Under different circumstances, he’d surely sound endearing. Currently, though, he sounds like somebody Juho doesn’t want to fuck with.

“Taeyang.”

“Okay, Taeyang. I’m Johnny. Why are you here?”

Taeyang glances at Juho and Chanhee before stepping in front of them, crossing his arms stoically. “We’re looking for an island.”

Johnny’s eyes widen comically, and he slides his legs over the edge of the boat so they’re resting against the inside wall of it. “Wow, really?” Sarcasm drips from his tone like saltwater drips from his hair. “Why?” His final question sounds serious, the sarcasm from before vanishing after his one liner.

“To live there.”

“It’s not like  _ anybody _ can just get a free pass onto the island,” Johnny hisses. “What makes  _ you _ special enough to be allowed to go there?”

After a moment of silence, with nobody presenting anything impressive that could potentially allow them to proceed, Taeyang murmurs a hesitant, “I’m fulfilling a wish.”

Johnny’s eyes widen, but he narrows them again a moment later to appear more harsh. He bites his lip, debating with himself for a brief minute before he nods. “Okay, then I’ll let you in.”

The island wasn’t far from where the boat had been stalled and apprehended by Johnny. It had been hidden by the horizon, but after the newcomer had dragged the captain to the side and restarted the engine, they’d arrived at their desired location in a handful of minutes.

Johnny had set the ship on autopilot before walking back to Taeyang, dragging him to the front of the ship. They disappeared behind a crate, and Juho only assumes why after realizing they’d walked to the same place Johnny had stashed the body.

“I don’t like this.” Chanhee remarks when Johnny finally steps back into sight, a droplet of blood sliding from the corner of his lips towards his chin. He wipes it away before cutting off the ship’s engine once again, the island only a handful of meters away. Juho nods in agreement, leaning back in his seat as he reaches over to grab the other’s arm.

“If he pulls anything, I’m sure the three of us can take him. He’s only one guy.”

The rain had stopped, and the waves had become awfully still underneath the cloak of the night. The stars have yet to peek through the overcast sky, but the moon leaves an unsettling sheen over the mist that had begun to rise in the distance. Juho shivers, pressing himself lightly against Chanhee, who in turn rests his head on the older’s shoulder.

“We’re still making those wishes,” the younger informs suddenly, and Juho smiles before agreeing. 

“Of course,” he hums, frowning when he watches Johnny walk back towards them. The few inches of water that had remained on the floor of the vessel after being abandoned there by the previously violent waves seem to part around his feet, leaving each spot Johnny steps on dry as he approaches Chanhee and Juho.

“This is as far as the boat’s going.” He states flatly, sparing Chanhee a glance before looking at Juho. “You’ll have to swim the rest of the way.”

“What about Chanhee?”

“He waits here.” Johnny raises his eyebrows, crossing his arms across his chest. 

“Not fucking happening. He stays with me.”

Johnny turns to look at Taeyang, who had come around the corner of the crate to include himself into the conversation. The siren frowns, walking forward before placing his hand on Chanhee’s shoulder. “He’s staying with me,” he repeats.

“I’m trying to help,” Johnny sneers, raising his hands with mock defeat. “You can bring him if you want, but I can’t guarantee he’ll live.”

The air grows tense. The boat begins rocking on the waves, gently at first, but the shakes grow in intensity with each passing second on the silent ship. Juho sees Taeyang’s fingers twitching nervously over Chanhee’s arm. 

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, not  _ all _ humans are just allowed in. You two,” Johnny’s gaze sweeps over Juho for a moment before it returns to Taeyang, “you two are fine. But him? I need to discuss him being allowed in with the others.”

“Then I’m staying here with him.” Taeyang deadpans. 

“Also not a choice. Either you two come with me, or I kill you all right now.”

Taeyang bristles. Juho frowns. He’d begun to like Chanhee, and didn’t appreciate anybody threatening him so suddenly. He couldn’t care less for Taeyang, but Chanhee had done nothing wrong in this situation. “One against three?” He snarks, pitching forward in his seat. Taeyang glances at him, staying silent as he allows Juho to fend for the group. “Doesn’t seem like you have great odds.”

Johnny smiles, his eyes crinkling in the corners as he does so. He slots a hand through his dark hair, the wet strands falling unevenly in the wake of his fingers. “ _ Is _ it one against three, though?” He hums, his gaze sliding past the group to instead rest on the back end of the ship. “I mean, it’s not like there’s an entire group of creatures like us waiting on the shore right now for me to come back. It’s not like they’ll come looking if I suddenly don’t show up, right?” 

Chanhee attempts to stand, but Taeyang shoves him back down. His shoes clumsily splash through the water on the floor when he steps towards the side of the ship. Hesitantly, he reaches up and pulls his shirt off, followed hesitantly by his jeans and shoes. Now nearly fully exposed, he locks his fingers around one of the steel bars that stretch across the side of the boat, acting as a barrier between the sea and the safety of the vessel. “He’s right.” Taeyang starts, looking towards Juho. “Come on.”

“Do I get a say?” Chanhee jumps up the moment Taeyang steps away, raising his eyebrows. “I mean, fuck! Let me speak-”

“I’m surprised you’re actually just going with it,” Johnny purses his lips, following Taeyang to the edge, ignoring Chanhee completely. “Is there a catch?”

“No. Our best bet is to go with you.” Taeyang glances towards Chanhee, an apologetic grimace on his face. “He’ll be safe here?”

“I won’t touch him.” Johnny assures, pulling himself easily up to sit on the top bar of the ship. “Follow me.”

Juho stands up to follow Taeyang, reaching down to grab Chanhee’s hand as he passes him. “We’ll be back soon, okay?” He murmurs, watching Chanhee’s exterior roughness deflate into an uncomfortable quietness. “We’ll be right back.”

Chanhee nods, sitting back silently as he lets go of Juho’s hand. The water splashes loudly twice, and Juho turns back to the younger before he follows the others into the blackness below. “I promise,” Juho smiles. “We’ll be back.”

“Just go.” Chanhee smiles back, clearly faking the contentment that flashes over his face. “Hurry up.”

Though Chanhee’s uncomfortable, it can’t be helped for the time being. Quickly, Juho copies Taeyang and drops his clothes into the few inches of water that reside on the boat’s floor. Juho hears Taeyang call to him impatiently from somewhere below, and he throws himself overboard.

Oddly enough, the transformation isn’t painful. The water embraces him lovingly, wrapping around his body like a thick blanket. His legs burn for only a moment before they’re numbed, like the rest of his body is, from the low temperature of the saltwater surrounding him. 

He lets out the breath he didn’t realize he’d been holding, parting his lips gently as he tries to make out the shape of, well,  _ anything _ around himself. The blackness of the water from above had translated to below, as well, and he can barely even see his own hand when he raises it in front of his face. 

A pair of arms wrap gently around his waist, and he whips around to be met with Taeyang inches away, his eyebrows raised teasingly as he spins the other around. 

_ Wrong way _ , Taeyang mouths, and Juho scrunches up his face distastefully before unhooking the other’s arms from around himself, instead grabbing onto one of his arms to allow the other to lead him. 

_ I know _ . He lies, mouthing back sharply before Taeyang laughs silently, the sound ripped away from him by the sea. Juho watches his shoulders bounce and grimaces when he notices the scars that cover the other’s body.  _ What happened _ ?

Taeyang cocks his head to the side curiously, only realizing what Juho’s talking about when the merman motions to the marks littering his body. 

_ Life _ .

Juho doesn’t like the island.

Immediately upon stepping onto the sand, he’s grabbed by his hair and forced down, pinned to the wet sediment by somebody he hadn’t seen behind him. He turns in an attempt to see them, but his cheek is pressed against the sand and he’s forced to watch as Taeyang’s given the same treatment beside him.

“Were there any others?” A feminine voice speaks from above Juho. Her knee comes down on his back, forcing him further against the ground as her fingers twist through his hair.

“A kid on the boat.” Johnny replies monotonously, standing above Taeyang triumphantly, as if he’d caught an exotic beast known for killing men. Which, of course, he had, but did that achievement carry the same weight when he himself was the same beast he was priding himself for catching? “Harmless, though. All of them except this one.” His heel connects with Taeyang’s back. The siren knows better than to fight back, allowing the other to pin him without a fight.

“Human?”

“I left him behind, didn’t I? Jackson.” Johnny states the last name authoritatively, and in response to it there’s a quiet hum from somewhere behind them in the water. Juho hears the waves break and bend for somebody, presumably Jackson, as they walk through them effortlessly. “Go get the kid.”

The command is the only thing that makes Taeyang panic. His face contorts with rage, and immediately upon hearing Johnny’s words he places his hands down on the sand, pushing up harshly in an attempt to get Johnny off of himself. The other isn’t affected; he simply presses down harder, forcing Taeyang back down. Angrily, the siren continues to fight back, screaming. “You said you wouldn’t touch him!”

“I said  _ I _ wouldn’t touch him.” Johnny corrects. “The others can do whatever the hell they want.”

Taeyang stills, staring to the side with wide eyes, his expression void of any natural emotion Juho would expect him to have. It makes him shudder. 

“Nothing else to say?” Johnny taunts, hooking his foot on the other’s side to push him onto his back, smirking down at him when Taeyang’s forced to look up to him. His blank stare persists as he watches Johnny. 

“I promise you,” Taeyang starts lowly, his voice just as monotonous as the rest of him, “that if anything happens to him, I will slaughter  _ everybody _ you care about and force you to watch before I kill you too.”

“That’s it?”

“Oh, no. I’ll have your body suspended from the trees like fucking streamers.”

Johnny laughs, but Juho can see the fear in his expression at the other’s words. “Okay, well, I’m just gonna…” He pushes the other over once again, forcing his face back into the sand, “put you down like that again…”

“Maybe we should just let them go until Yuto gets back,” somebody else murmurs from farther away, their tone distant, “I really don’t like the idea of this…”

“You believe in the good in people too much.” The woman above Juho speaks flatly. “We need to wait for Yuto to make the decision for them to be able to stay here or not.”

“But-”

“-Hold on,” the woman continues, “toss me that rock.”

The only way Juho’s able to tell the object had been given to the woman asking for it is when he feels something cold and hard smash against the back of his head. He lets out a soft, pained whimper before his vision blackens, and the last thing he sees is Taeyang tear out of Johnny’s grasp, lunging for him with malice in his gaze.

And then the world goes black.

_ “Let’s play a game while we wait.”  _

_ “While we wait?” _

_ “You know,” the man speaking tosses the chess piece he’d been holding into the air, catching it swiftly before repeating the action, “before the rebels storm and we’re both killed.” _

_ Juho shifts towards the other, resting his head on his shoulder as he watches the chess piece fly. “Well, what game do you want to play?”  _

_ “Any.” _

_ “Mm,” Juho nods, attempting to come up with one but ultimately failing to. “How about we don’t do that, and we run and hope we get out fast enough, Blue?” _

_ The prince looks to him, raising an eyebrow before nodding. “That’s a better idea.” _

_ “Isn’t it?” Juho hums, standing up from where the two had been seated against the wall before extending his hand to the other. “Come on, we don’t have much time.” _

* * *

Juho wakes up with his wrists bound behind his back. He tries not to panic, looking around the dark beach in an attempt to make out any shape he can. Taeyang lays nearby, but instead of the rope he’s bound with only wrapping around his wrists, it encircles his entire body. His arms are pinned to his sides, legs forced together, and to finish the look off the rope encircles his head, forcing his mouth open so he can’t speak. 

Somebody had dressed him, though. Juho realizes both of them had returned to having legs, and that both are in dry, seasonal clothing. 

Taeyang stares at him from where he’s laying, but as soon as Juho’s about to speak to him, his gaze slides away to rest on something behind the merman’s head. Juho turns, jumping slightly when he finally notices Chanhee sitting next to him.

“Hey.”

“What the  _ fuck _ is going on?” 

Juho’s head aches, the feeling of it splitting only making him further uncomfortable. When he speaks, his head throbs, and he debates on quitting communication altogether.

“Well, I don’t know about you guys, but they like me.” Juho notices the lack of restraints binding Chanhee’s wrists or legs, and frowns as the younger continues. “I mean, the village kinda doesn’t like me… But hey! If the sirens think I’m cool then that works for me, you know?”

Taeyang lets out an aggravated, muffled cry, garnering the attention of the two others who had previously been holding their own conversation. He squirms awkwardly on the ground, gnawing on the rope. Chanhee shakes his head. 

“I can’t untie you,” he informs hesitantly, smiling apologetically. “Sorry.” The youngest ducks his head slightly. “I would, but… You know, they’re watching. If they see me untying you, it’ll make everything worse.”

Taeyang grumbles something incoherently before rolling himself over to face the forest, showing his disagreement with Chanhee in the only way he can. The human pouts. “Don’t get mad at me!”

Juho’s head whips back and forth as he watches both sides of the one-sided conversation play out. Chanhee says something, then Taeyang makes some slight movement or mumble in response. It’s fascinating how Chanhee’s able to understand it at all. 

“I literally went against my path in this life to follow you here, don’t start giving me shit now, Taeyang.”

Taeyang rolls his shoulders. Chanhee angrily crosses his arms. 

“You’re mean to me all the time. Literally  _ all _ the time.”

Juho stops paying attention then, his head beginning to feel worse the longer Chanhee speaks next to him. The younger must realize it when Juho draws his knees to his chest and buries his face against them, and the younger promptly finishes the conversation then. 

Juho can’t remember what exactly he’d been dreaming of before he woke back up, but his heart races nervously. He knows whatever it had been couldn’t have been good, and worriedly leaves it at that as to not make his anxiety about it worse. He brushes it off as a nightmare he couldn’t remember.

The beach is dark around the small group, the forest towering above them on one side, while farther away the ocean crashes gently against the shore. Juho’s desperate to get back to it, the sound of it almost making him feel better entirely. Though, each time the sound of the waves recedes, his head aches again, and he cries out in frustration.

“Are you okay?” Chanhee mumbles quietly, leaning a bit closer to Juho.

“Yeah,” the older lies, squeezing his eyes shut as he bites back another pained cry. Chanhee doesn’t say anything else, but a minute later Juho feels something cold and wet press against the back of his neck. 

He looks up quickly to see Chanhee without a sleeve, his hands soaking wet as he holds what Juho assumes is the piece of cloth against his neck. His head begrudgingly begins to soothe, the aching pulsing with his heartbeat for a few moments more before it fades into the background noise of Juho’s nervously beating heart. 

“Is that better?”

Juho nods, leaning slightly against the younger’s side gratefully. Chanhee smiles, continuing to hold the cloth in place with one hand, the other idly placed in his lap. “How did you know that would work?” Juho murmurs, closing his eyes as he can now begin to relax without the pain bothering him. He feels Chanhee shrug.

“It always helps Taeyang.” 

“Ah.”

At his name, the siren turns to look over his shoulder, scrunching his face up distastefully at the sight of the two being so close. He mumbles something against the ropes, and Chanhee pitches forward to look at him. 

“Go fuck yourself!”

Before Taeyang can shoot the other a glare in response, the three are alerted of a new presence in the area. Well, Chanhee isn’t, but when Taeyang and Juho turn to look into the darkness behind them, Chanhee knows fully well to press a bit closer to Juho.

“Why the hell are they tied up like that?”

“The siren was hostile, so…” The second voice is distinctly Johnny’s. “You weren’t here, if they killed anybody that would’ve been on me.”

The first voice is new. Juho watches the two step out of the shadows, coming close enough for him to make out their faces. Johnny’s standing between a woman and another man, the latter of which Juho can only assume must be in charge because of Johnny’s last statement.

The woman doesn’t speak, parting her lips softly when she looks closely at Taeyang. She crouches down, immediately making light work of the ropes as she undoes them, much to Johnny’s dislike. 

“Momo, he’s dangerous!”

“He looks harmless,” the other man mumbles, looking to Juho. “Why the hell would you tie  _ him _ up, though? Literally,” he motions to the merman, “harmless.”

Momo gently pulls the rope from Taeyang’s mouth lastly, throwing it to the side when she’s finished pulling each strand off of Taeyang’s priorly bound body. He looks up to her gratefully, unspoken words passing between them as they look to each other. 

The man besides Johnny kneels and unties Juho himself, pursing his lips as he does so. Juho takes in his appearance quickly, noting the way his dark hair sweeps against his forehead. Every time he looks at him he notices a new piercing, finding the one that adorns the middle of the man’s lower lip the strangest one. The others hang from his ears, chains connecting those on the top and the bottom on each side. 

“My name’s Yuto,” he states when he finally seems to notice Juho staring, cocking his lip upwards into a half smile. “And you are?”

“My name’s Juho,” Juho mumbles, still staring at the piercing on the man’s lip. “Didn’t that hurt?”

Confused, Yuto raises a hand, pressing his finger against the black metal. “Oh,” he smiles fully now, “not really.” When Yuto stands, Juho stays on the ground, looking over to Taeyang. 

The siren had sat up, and now rubs at the side of his face where the ropes had made an impressive burn due to the constant friction they had on his cheek. He’s clearly unhappy, and shows that off proudly as he glares at Johnny, but makes no movement to showcase his distaste in any other way. 

Chanhee notices the mark immediately, and completely abandons Juho before taking the cloth he’d soaked with seawater to Taeyang, kneeling next to him as he presses the black sleeve against the siren’s cheek. 

“I’m fine,” Taeyang murmurs, easing the other away with a hand. Chanhee nods, dropping his hands to his lap when he finally turns his attention to Yuto. 

Yuto looks down to Chanhee before glancing back at Johnny. “He’ll be punished for fucking around like that,” he informs softly. Johnny’s eyes widen, and his shoulders grow tense as he watches Yuto carefully. “So will Lisa,” Yuto’s gaze slides to Juho, “the woman who nearly cracked your skull.” He informs flatly. 

“Ah…” Juho’s eyebrows furrow. “She hit me that hard?”

“I like you,” Yuto hums, deciding not to answer Juho’s question “you ask me dumb shit. It’s cute.”

Juho blushes, embarrassment coating his face in its familiar red hues. Yuto grins at the sight of it, the chains hanging from his ears swinging when he turns to look back to Taeyang and Chanhee. “Alright, well… I should take you to the village to get situated,” Yuto states, holding eye contact with Chanhee. “You can come back here whenever you want, but I’m just thinking it’s a bit late, and I don’t think the people here will be too happy with me if I bring you there later.”

Chanhee glances towards Taeyang, who defensively moves a bit closer to the younger. Yuto catches the movement, smiling slightly. “You can come, too, to make sure he’s safe.”

“I’m going to.” Taeyang frowns. 

“Good, then let’s go.” Yuto turns back towards Momo, motioning to Juho slightly, “will you bring him to Jackson?”

The girl nods, walking over to Juho’s side while she waits for him to stand. Juho does so hesitantly, looking back towards Taeyang with worry in his gaze. 

“I’ll see you in a bit,” Taeyang glances back to Juho, reaching down to grab onto Chanhee’s hand. “Okay?”

“Yeah,” Juho nods, looking back towards Momo when Yuto begins leading Taeyang and Chanhee into the forest. “Who’s… Jackson?”

Johnny cuts in before Momo can answer. “He’s in charge of everyone like you.” He walks at Momo’s other side; she seems content, almost grateful, with Johnny doing the speaking. She offers little nods here and there to show her support for what he’s saying. “So Yuto keeps watch over the sirens, Jackson watches over the mermaids.”

“And… The village,” Juho mumbles, “how does everything work here? I’m a bit surprised there’s humans here who you guys interact with so freely…”

“Well,” Johnny shrugs, shoving his hands into his jacket pockets as the three walk down the shore, “Yuto was born here. He knows a lot of the details, but we just know that the sirens steal cargo from the ships for the village, and they in turn give us a place to stay.”

“Why?”

“There’s not many resources here, I guess.” Johnny bites his lip in thought, squeezing it between his teeth lightly. “Anything we bring back they can use.”

Juho doesn’t understand it all too well, but all that matters to him is that he’s safe. And, though he’s hesitant to believe it, he does start to feel comfortable enough to admit the island might be a safe place for him.

The safest he’d ever felt before had been when he was with Youngbin, though, even when he was being threatened by two different sirens at once. He’d never felt fear when Youngbin was holding him, and he begins to crave that feeling as he finds himself in another safe environment. 

The empty spot Youngbin left is only partially filled. Juho worries that it’ll always be there; growing and festering as he’d lost the most important person to him in his entire life. 

Juho can make out the shape of somebody sitting on an outcropping of heavy rocks sticking dramatically out of the water, like teeth pointing towards the sky, threatening the heavens above though they’re out of reach of the starving ocean. 

“Jackson!” Johnny calls, continuing to walk towards the figure. 

From what Juho could see, the island was rather inclusive of what formations it had; the forest stretches around one end of the beach, lifting into the air into a short cliff, and underneath it a wall of rocks falls back to the sand. The rocks stretch out, though, growing in size as they reach out into the water before disappearing underneath the surface.

The figure walks across the slick rocks like it’s common practice; Juho knows if he attempted to do the same, he’d fall. Though, the man makes it to the end of the rocks without slipping once over the wet surface, and drops down onto the sand a moment later. 

“Yuto wanted us to bring him to you,” Johnny hums, motioning to Juho as Jackson approaches the group. 

“Oh… Juho, right?” Jackson smiles, stopping a few feet away from him. His face, though relatively shrouded by the darkness of the night, is more friendly in Juho’s own opinion than Johnny’s or Yuto’s. “Chanhee was telling me about you. You’re… Taller than I imagined,” Juho notices the other’s a few inches shorter than himself, and smiles nervously when Jackson steps closer. 

Johnny says a quick goodbye to the two before he and Momo walk away. Jackson slides his hands over his sides, as if looking for the pockets that he must not have on his jacket, before dropping them once again. “So, what brought you here?”

“A boat,” Juho mumbles, not fully understanding the other’s question. Jackson quirks the corners of his lips upwards, cocking his head to the side slightly as he watches the other. Confused at his reaction, Juho begins to recall his answer to the question, freezing when he realizes his mistake. “Oh, uh… Taeyang… Wanted us to come here…”

“Do you know how he found out about this place?”

“Not really…”

Jackson nods before smiling, “that’s alright,” he murmurs. “Are you tired?”

Juho shrugs, the length of the day not hitting him fully. He supposes it’s because he’d been knocked out; his adrenaline is still coursing through him, though it’s begun to die down into a quiet murmur in his pulse. He isn’t sure if he’ll be able to sleep for a while. “Not really.”

“Okay…” The brunette in front of him looks around before pursing his lips. “Well, when you  _ get _ tired, you can really sleep anywhere. There’s not really any set place or anything…”

Juho glances towards the water before raising his hand to his collar, toying with the soft fabric softly between his fingers. “Okay,” he nods, lips parted softly around the word as he stares into the distance, watching the water ebb and flow against the shore. 

“Are you alright?”

“Yeah.”

* * *

Youngbin watches the night sky through his window absently, sitting against the arm of his couch with his phone in his hands. He’d stopped responding to Inseong’s angered texts, as some of them had begun to not make much sense to the older. He isn’t sure if he’s just tired, or if he’s forgetting something, but he’s sure Inseong’s speaking of instances that had never happened. 

Regardless, the conversation is forgotten and locked away in the device as Youngbin watches the clouds sway in the air. He’s unable to focus on anything specific; his thoughts change with the racing weather. It had snowed that afternoon, and the remnants of the white precipitation stick to the ground heavily. 

He tries not to think of Juho.

He continues to tell himself it was for the best that the younger had left, but he can’t bring himself to believe that he was really gone. Unsure of how, or why he’d become so enamored with the other in such a short period of time, Youngbin chalks his feelings up to simply missing Juho’s company. The silence and loneliness is just unusual, since Youngbin hadn’t felt it since he’d met the merman.

Youngbin’s phone chimes with another text, and he checks it idly.

  
  


**INSEONG: **

**Its always been taeyang. You know? Hes always the one who fucks everything up.**

  
  


Youngbin agrees, but hesitantly reads up in the other’s messages, hoping that something will make sense finally. Though, none of it does.

  
  


**INSEONG:**

**Ive lost chanhee before. This isnt new, you know? This happens every single time.**

**Next time im sure he wont be a part of my life. I wont know him.**

**I dont know what taeyang gains from doing this every single time. Hes breaking the rules, right?**

**Chanhee was supposed to stay with me this time. Things were finally on the right track. Seokwoo and him were finally getting closer, and taeyangs just selfish i guess. Needs chanhee each and every time.**

**I just didnt think sirens were supposed to fall in love.**

  
  


Youngbin shakes his head, typing out a short  _ I’m sorry _ before setting his phone back down. Inseong wasn’t mad that Chanhee was gone, which genuinely puzzles Youngbin. Inseong was the most overprotective guardian he’d encountered - and now that Chanhee had vanished, he’s suddenly lost all passion for caring for the other. He’s just angry at Taeyang. He’s confusing; Youngbin doesn’t question how he knows about what Taeyang is.

Nothing makes sense to Youngbin. He drops his phone onto the sofa cushion, kicking it away before returning his attention to the window.

Reality is skewed; Youngbin feels he’s spent hours in this position, knowing though that it’s only been a dozen or so minutes. Each thought takes him longer than usual to process, as if each word stretches itself out in order to take up more time to think of. Youngbin, after a moment, decides that even thinking is pointless as he slides down against the couch, watching the sky outside blankly. 

Of course, thinking  _ isn’t _ pointless, and Youngbin can’t turn off his thoughts like a lightbulb. He returns to wondering about Inseong’s texts, wanting to question him on what he meant while at the same time not wanting to confuse himself even further. The only thing he can form an opinion on that Inseong had said was that  _ Taeyang ruins everything _ . 

Arguably, he  _ had _ ruined something. Yet, Youngbin can’t blame him for it. Juho would die. He had a wish to complete - and, in Juho and Taeyang’s world, that seemed to be more important than anything else. 

Youngbin has to deal with it. He shouldn’t let a relationship he’d had for a matter of  _ days _ fuck him up this badly. 

Yet, Juho had changed something within himself. He can’t deny it - the other had reached into him and filled a void Youngbin didn’t know existed. His absence only drudges the now apparent void back to the surface, and Youngbin feels it consuming him.

He hopes it’ll pass. That the empty space will shrink back down after time and he’ll be able to think of going back to work without feeling nauseous. Even imagining being in the observation room makes Youngbin feel like he’s going to puke. He can only remember falling into the water, grappling for control over Jaeyoon knowing damn well he could be drowned at any second.

But he’d do it all again for Juho.

* * *

Juho and Jackson had gone their separate ways a few minutes after their conversation lulled to a stop. Jackson had gone back out onto the rocks, promising Juho he was around if he needed him. Juho had curled up against the uncomfortable stone wall that crumbled underneath the cliff, watching the beach dully as he tried to imagine himself getting used to life on the island.

He didn’t want to live underneath somebody else’s rules, as Jackson had insinuated towards the end of their conversation. He’d mentioned keeping the mermaids in check, making sure everybody was where they should be. Juho hates the idea of it, but hopes Jackson’s as nice as he appears to be so far. 

Taeyang had been gone for longer than Juho expected him to be. He’s starting to get tired, closing his eyes as the cold wind washes over him, drawing the clothes he’d been given tighter around himself in hopes to stay warm. 

In the time he’d been waiting, Juho had watched Momo disappear into the water. A moment later he’d seen a figure besides Jackson’s on the rocks, a white tail the only detail of them he could make out. It glimmered in the moonlight, as if it had been molded together by the stars themselves.

The two still sit on the rocks, Juho realizes when he opens his eyes once again. Though, he doesn’t get the chance to close them when he hears somebody fall next to him. He turns quickly t0 see a familiar siren drawing his knees to his chest.

“Sorry I took so long. I wanted to stay with Chanhee until he fell asleep.”

“Is he okay?”

“Yeah,” Taeyang wraps his arms around his legs, resting his cheek on one of them when he turns to look at Juho, “he’s just nervous being alone. But I think he’s safe; the people in the village don’t like me much though.”

Juho smiles, mimicking Taeyang’s position; mirroring him. “I wonder why.”

The siren rolls his eyes before closing them, a tired smile crossing his gentle features. The wind tousles his hair coldly. “Can we talk?” He murmurs, his exhausted voice nearly drowned out by the crashing waves nearby.

“Of course.”

“I just… I want to be honest with you, okay?” Taeyang yawns, opening his eyes as he begins speaking once again. “This wish I’m granting, do you have any idea what it could be?”

“No.”

Juho bristles with excitement, readying himself to hear what was so important about the wish Taeyang needed to fulfill that he had to be there. Though, at the other’s solemn expression, his excitement quickly fades into a diluted fear. Taeyang nods slowly.

“Well… It’s yours.”

Juho doesn’t want to interrupt the other. Confused, he allows him to continue, narrowing his eyes skeptically.

“A long time ago, we met. Like, a  _ really  _ long time ago. And a lot happened… You got really hurt. You got hurt to save somebody you fell in love with.”

“Who?”

“That’s obvious, isn’t it?” Taeyang smiles sadly. “I don’t need to answer that. But, you found me before the pain got too bad. And instead of wishing for health, or something that could have saved you, you wished for him to be loved…” Quietly, Taeyang adds a soft, “and for him to not have to see you die.”

Juho tenses his shoulders. Taeyang continues quietly. “And that’s the wish. So, I had to take you away. You weren’t used to how cold the water was anymore; at least here it’s more manageable... And, with Jaeyoon out there, I couldn’t have left you there for him to hunt down.”

There’s nothing Juho can say to the other. His mouth had gone dry from his words, and all he could do was shake his head in response. He doesn’t want to believe Taeyang, but what would the siren gain from lying to him? None of it makes sense. Taeyang’s gaze softens.

“If things had been different…” He murmurs, “I’m sure you would be able to stay with him.”

“What…” Juho’s voice cracks. “How…”

“Past lives,” Taeyang shrugs, looking down to the sand before dropping one of his hands, beginning to draw thin circles in the sediment with his finger. “Here.”

He draws one circle, then a line connecting it to another. He does this a few times, repeating the pattern before going back to circle the entire chain. The larger circle cuts through the first of the chain, as if it’s the link holding it together. “We’ll call this your first life,” Taeyang muses, pointing to the first circle in the chain; the link. “Since you wished for something that can’t really… Well, be fully granted in one lifetime, your wish passed through each of your next lives.” Taeyang runs his finger through the rest of the chain, dragging it through to create a thick break in the chain. “It’s complicated.”

Juho stares blankly at the drawing, pulling his lips together tightly as he tries to process what the other’s telling him. Taeyang reaches over to lay his hand over Juho’s, squeezing it slightly. The action is comforting, and though Juho wants nothing more than to pull away, he can’t bring himself to.

“Did we ever get to be together?” Juho’s tongue feels like a weight in his mouth; he’s completely numbed to everything. His body is heavy with realization and dread. 

Taeyang’s silence is the only answer Juho needs to hear. 

“I want to change my wish, then.” Juho whispers. Taeyang shakes his head.

“You can’t just change your wish, I’ve been carrying it for lifetimes. You can’t change a wish once you make it.”

“Then stop carrying it.” Juho responds flatly, eyes welling with tears. “If it’s never… I don’t even know…” His voice drops off into a whisper. “I don’t know what to think.”

Taeyang bites his lip, dropping his knees before kneeling on them, enveloping Juho hesitantly into his arms afterwards. “I’m sorry,” he mumbles against Juho’s hair, pulling him closer.

“It just…” Juho can’t understand it. He doesn’t want to. He wants to be normal, wants to be able to be with Youngbin no matter the consequences, wants to protect him. “Can you make it stop?”

“You can make another wish,” Taeyang offers quietly, “I can’t stop until the wish you gave me can’t be fulfilled anymore. If you make another wish to a different entity, then things could change.”

Juho nods, pushing himself closer to Taeyang. The siren holds him tighter, running his hands comfortingly over the other’s back. “It’ll be okay,” he promises, resting his head on top of Juho’s shoulder as he speaks, “everything is gonna be okay.”

* * *

The summer comes quickly that year. Juho finds it more tolerable than the winter, and it’s easily his favorite of the two seasons. If the water was cold, he could go onto the shore, but if the sun was too strong, the water called him back eagerly.

Usually, Juho would spend the days with Chanhee. Either the human would swim or Juho would help him with his chores in the village, which usually consisted of finding firewood or weeding the many gardens. They had a schedule set; every three days, Chanhee would go to the beach, and every two days, Juho would go to the village.

The people liked him, at least after he’d begun to visit more frequently. They’d been cautious around him at first, but a few visits later they’d begun to see him as one of their own. They were always kind to him when he left for the ocean when night would begin to fall. But, they were intimidating. When Chanhee explained that nobody had attempted to visit the island because the villagers were known on the outside for being violent with anybody who got too close, Juho believed it.

Today, though, everyone would be busy until the sirens returned that night. Chanhee said he’d try to make it to the beach after helping Taeyang bring whatever cargo he’d managed to steal up to the village, but Juho knew that would happen much later. So, for now he just sits on the rocks, idly watching Jackson in the shallows.

He’s floating on his back, a young girl from the village on his lap with her legs in the water. Jackson has a hand on her back, keeping her steady as he talks to her quietly. Juho can’t hear what he’s saying, but knows it’s probably just smalltalk. He’d spent the morning trying to teach her how to swim, but he’d never been good with mentoring the younger children. Usually, he helped the fishermen on the island in untangling their nets and scaring fish towards them. 

Sakura, another mermaid on the island, was usually the one to mentor the children. Though, she’d been nowhere to be found that afternoon.

The ocean’s calm that day, as if it pities Jackson for not knowing what exactly he’s doing, or how to coax the girl into the water gently enough to not intimidate her. Juho favored this side of the water; the sea that was slow and lulled him to sleep when he’d been alone. He misses those days sometimes, but those sometimes are rare. Those days had been lonely, the light blue of the ocean and the sun’s skewed glare into the water his only company. 

The days feel lonelier now. Juho doesn’t understand it; he’s never alone, but he feels like he is. The summer’s cold and void of what Juho would have imagined it to be. He hadn’t smiled genuinely for a few weeks. His interactions are forced, and though he loved seeing Chanhee and Taeyang and everybody else he’d begun to call his friends, he feels like he’s lying to them each and every time he forces his laughs.

Juho had begun to consider leaving. Diving into the water and disappearing, finding his way back to Youngbin. He knows that Taeyang would refuse the idea, but could he really stop him? Juho entertains the idea for the first time that day, as he did most days. The night before, he’d fallen asleep imagining wrapping his arms around the human once again.

His dark hair is thrown lightly by the wind, and it only reminds Juho that the color hadn’t changed. He’d seen others change the color of theirs, almost at will, but no matter how much Juho tried to, he’d never been able to. He can’t tell if it’s because he’s still claimed by Taeyang, or because he can’t feel enough for it to fade back to a color that Youngbin had shown his clear love for previously. 

It stays dark. And, as much as Juho hates it, he understands it. It’s a staple that forces him into realizing that his situation will not change. He will stay claimed by Taeyang, will stay on the island even if it kills him on the inside to not be with Youngbin.

He lays back on the rocks, staring up at the piercingly blue sky and the cotton ball clouds that hang low in the air. The sunlight is gentle and wraps around Juho like a blanket, warming him and the stone beneath him eagerly. 

“Hey, Jackson!” He calls suddenly, raising his head to look at the other in the water.

“What?” Jackson has his hands wrapped around the young girl’s, holding her above the water as he swims idly in front of her now, letting the soft waves break on his back so they don’t reach her. “What do you want?”

“Has anybody ever left the island before?”

Juho’s question causes Jackson to look at him, raising an inquisitive eyebrow cautiously. “Why?”

“I’m just wondering.”

“Yeah,” Jackson shrugs, smiling when the girl unhooks her fingers from him, her confidence obviously growing the longer she stays in the water. “Nice job,” he murmurs, encouraging her softly as he continues to shield her from the waves. After a moment, he returns his attention to Juho. “Johnny leaves at the end of every summer to go back to America. He has a friend there.”

Juho nods, and at the other’s words, he finds his previous thoughts suddenly  _ very _ possible. He could leave, find Youngbin, and face no repercussions from it. “And nobody has a problem with it?”

“No, not at all. We all have people we leave to visit sometimes.” Jackson must be able to sense that Juho’s hiding something. “If you want to leave, just talk to me about it, okay?” Jackson’s gaze flashes to Juho for a moment, “it’s not a problem.”

“Then… Can we talk later?”

“Of course,” Jackson grins, eyes widening before he whips his head back around to look at the girl. He catches her before she goes under the water, holding her up by her arms gently. “Nice job,” he smiles, “you’re doing a great job.”

“Jackson!”

Juho and the other turn to look at the shore, noticing the woman now standing there with her arms crossed, a smile adorning her gentle features warmly. “Since when did you turn into a teacher?”

“You weren’t around!” He calls back, “where have you been?” 

“The village, I was helping Chanhee out with a few things.” Juho becomes interested, and he sits up on the rocks fully now, kicking his legs absently. 

“What’s he up to?”

Sakura smiles, running a hand through her short brown hair before responding. “Taking care of the gardens. Boring stuff,” she walks into the water, wading into the shallows up to her waist before she reaches Jackson. “Hey Euna,” she grins, happily scooping the girl into her arms before shoving Jackson back into the water. “How’s everything going?”

Excitedly, Euna begins to recount her lesson with Jackson, who sputters as he resurfaces, a look of betrayal in his eyes as he stares up at Sakura. Juho scoffs, laying back on the rocks as his conversation had likely ended. He closes his eyes, sighing quietly against the warmth of the sun, feeling it once again wash over him.

He opens his eyes a moment later when he feels somebody tug gently on his arm. 

“Hmm?”

“Let’s talk.”

Juho cracks an eye open to look at Jackson, who had crawled onto the rocks next to him. Juho glances into the water, realizing it’s empty before looking towards the shore, watching Sakura walk back towards the forest with Euna in her arms. “Lesson over?”

“Lesson over.” Jackson nods, stretching his arms above his head. “And thank  _ God _ about that, I’m horrible with kids.”

“You’re not,” Juho murmurs, closing his eyes again. 

Jackson hums softly before laying beside the other. “So, what’s going on with you?”

Juho had talked to Jackson before about Youngbin, and that he’d had to leave quickly from being with him. He’d never gone into detail about the wish, or about his past. “I want to go see Youngbin.”

“I’m okay with it,” Jackson informs softly, “do you really plan on going, or are you just thinking about it right now?”

“I don’t know.”

“Well, I’ll support you if you want to go. Whatever you want to do, okay? If you end up staying there, that’s cool, and if you come back that’s cool too.” Juho opens his eyes, turning to look at the older. 

“Are you sure?”

“Just let me know when you’re going.” Jackson nods. “If you choose to go, that is.”

“Will… If I go,” Juho mumbles, “I can’t let Taeyang know.”

“Then he won’t find out.” Jackson hums. “I’ll tell Yuto to keep him busy for awhile.”

The realization that Juho could potentially leave to see Youngbin again makes his heart soar. He pulls his lips together tightly as he turns away, trying to hold back a smile as he looks up at the sky. “Thank you.”

“Don’t thank me,” Jackson smiles, closing his eyes beside the other. “I can tell he means a lot to you.”

“He does.”

“Mm…” Jackson nods. “Youngbin,” he states the other’s name flatly, as if testing its power. “Huh.”

“What is it?”

“Nothing,” Jackson murmurs, “it just sounds familiar.”

Juho commits fully to the plan of leaving to find Youngbin. He’d leave in the early hours of the morning; had told Jackson that as soon as he’d become determined enough to go back to Youngbin. He doesn’t consider that the other may not want to see him, or that something in his last words to Juho had been completely genuine. Juho  _ needs _ to see Youngbin again. 

So, when Chanhee visits Juho on the beach that night, coming to meet with him as soon as Taeyang had gone to sleep, Juho’s determined to fulfill the one thing he’d told Chanhee they’d do together before arriving at the island. 

“What do you want to wish for?”

“I can’t tell you that,” Chanhee grins, laying back in the sand, his hood drawn up over his head warmly. He stares up at the stars wistfully. 

Juho smirks, raising his eyebrows as he turns to look at the younger. “You gonna wish for Taeyang to be a better boyfriend?”

“ _ Don’t say that _ ,” Chanhee hisses, biting back a laugh before drawing the siren’s hoodie tighter around himself. “Leave him alone, I love him.”

“Gross.” Juho teases. “I’m gonna wish for money.”

“No you’re not.”

“No, I’m not.” Juho agrees. “How do you even do this? Is there like, a special way, or..?”

“I dunno,” Chanhee shrugs, rolls his shoulders back against the sand. “Try shutting the  _ fuck _ up.”

Juho frowns, glaring at the younger before rolling back over onto his back, staring up at the night sky idly. The stars glimmer tiredly behind the clouds, their usual shimmer diluted by the grey mist that hides them from clear sight.

Half of Juho is convinced that this new wish will change things. That he’ll be freed and he’ll be able to be with Youngbin if he can just get this  _ one _ wish right. 

But, he doesn’t know what it should be for. 

“What are you gonna wish for?” Juho repeats his question finally, breaking the calm silence that had floated comfortably over the two on the sand moments before. Chanhee groans, clearly unamused by the other.

“Fuck, Juho, I’m thinking.” Chanhee grumbles. “I don’t know.” He drops his harsh tone a moment later. “In all honesty, I want to wish for something fun.”

“Something fun?”

“Mm,” Chanhee hums, “like, maybe for a fresh start next life. I love Taeyang, and I want to be with him, but we have so much shit from our pasts weighing us down… Last year, when I first saw him again, I  _ hated  _ him. I want to start over with him.”

“So…”

“I’m gonna wish to start over,” Chanhee nods, “that sounds good. What about you?”

“I don’t know,” Juho confesses, watching the sky aimlessly. “I just… You remember the past, right?”

Chanhee takes a moment to respond, as if he’s mulling over Juho’s question, debating on ignoring it entirely. Though, he finally answers, his gaze trained solemnly on the sky. “I remember.”

“And you know the wish I originally made?”

“Partially.”

“What would you wish for to cancel that out?”

Again, Chanhee falls silent. His lips are parted softly around his answer, tasting it before he finally spits it out. “I’d wish for Youngbin to never remember.”

“What?”

“What happened to him… What happened to all of us…” Chanhee’s stoic as he responds, his tone soft and barely audible over the crashing waves not far from the two. “You don’t want him to know about that. Nobody should have to remember something as painful as that.”

Juho wants to question Chanhee, but from the muted look of terror on his face as he must recount their past, he decides not to pry. “Then I’ll wish for that.” Juho nods softly, “thank you.”

Chanhee doesn’t respond. Juho doesn’t expect him to.

He doesn’t know how to go about making his wish - doesn’t know if Chanhee had already made his. 

Had their past been that morbid? Juho’s grateful he can’t recount it, but still wishes he could, in an odd way. Knowing he had an entire history with Youngbin he couldn’t remember, which explained his feelings towards the man, was unbearable. 

He only hopes Youngbin still feels the same about him, and decides that wishing for him to not remember would be for the best. He trusts Chanhee, and the younger hadn’t often made it apparent when something bothered him. Juho remembers the night they’d spent sitting on the dock together suddenly, when he stopped telling the story of how he met Taeyang almost as quickly as he’d started. 

Whatever had happened to them, Juho doesn’t want Youngbin to remember. And, judging from what Taeyang had told him about the circumstances he’d made his own wish under, Juho can only assume what terrible things they’d faced.

Juho stares up at the sky. The quiet of the night around him makes the waves sound deafening when they crash onto the shore. 

He isn’t sure he remembers blacking out, but one moment Juho’s staring up at the sky and the next he’s falling, his vision dark as the shadows envelop him heavily. 

_ Are you sure this is what you want? _

The sudden voice whispering around Juho doesn’t startle him. It comforts him in an odd way, giving the darkness a sense of life. Juho can’t bring himself to answer, his words dying in his throat each time he tries to say them. 

He feels entirely numb, staring upwards into the breathing darkness as he tries to say  _ yes _ . He raises a hand slowly, watching the shadows curl around it, the tendrils drifting down from his fingers to his elbow, encircling his skin slowly before snapping into place around it. 

His eyes widen, watching the darkness begin to move further down his arm like water, dribbling from his elbow down to his collar. He’s suffocating moments later when the dark reaches his throat and he feels it constricting around his skin. 

“Yes,” he gags, forcing the word out in an attempt to get the sensation of choking to stop. It does after a moment, the grip the shadows have on him slowly lessening before drifting away completely. Juho sighs softly, dropping his hand to rub absently at his throat.

Moments later he feels something stab into his back. He cries out, the sound greedily swallowed by the dark as he pitches forward, only feeling whatever had been forced into him dig deeper underneath his skin.

He writhes, trying to fight off his assailant, but it’s no use. 

Seconds later he’s back on the beach, eyes wide as he still stares up at the sky. The stars seem brighter now.

Chanhee sits up beside him quickly, fingers planted tightly against his collarbone. Juho follows him up, a dull ache in his back the only indicator that what had just happened was  _ real _ . 

Underneath Chanhee’s fingertips is a thick black line that hadn’t been there before. Curiously, Juho pulls the other’s fingers away from it to investigate, narrowing his eyes at the marking. 

“When did you get this?” Juho murmurs, running his thumb over the intricate pattern. Chanhee looks down at it, eyes widening.

“I didn’t.”

* * *

Youngbin doesn’t fear the water as he had years before. 

After meeting Juho, and after he’d finally begun to realize that he may never see the other again, the water remained the sole thing that tied them together. So, Youngbin had embraced it immediately.

He lays floating in the bay, the waves almost unapparent that day. The ocean’s more peaceful than it had been the night before, and Youngbin’s thankful for it. He’d swam out a bit farther than he usually did that morning, finding himself further from the shore than what he’d normally be comfortable with. 

Though, he doesn’t mind it much. Youngkyun isn’t far, sitting on the dock with a notebook in his hands. He’d increased his workload when Jaeyoon disappeared, taking up all of the other’s jobs without consulting anybody else for help.

Neither he or Seokwoo had questioned Jaeyoon vanishing. Youngbin chalks it up to him being lucky, and doesn’t know who he has to thank for not needing to explain that one of their closest friends had actually been a murderous siren. 

Youngbin doesn’t find himself afraid of Jaeyoon returning. There was nothing left for him here, why would he want to come back? Youngbin’s sure he’s found somewhere better to live by this point, anyway. He misses his friend, but hates the fact that he does. 

Inseong had become quieter, sometimes going days without answering Youngbin’s calls or sending him any messages. Sanghyuk, however, had been much more straightforward with contacting Youngbin, going as far as to show up at his house one night when Inseong and him had gotten into a fight.

But, Sanghyuk had always seemed to be hiding something. Sometimes Youngbin felt like the other was just checking in on him to see how he was doing, as if he was worried for Youngbin just as he was for his husband. 

Youngbin closes his eyes, the heat of the sun making him tired. Every so often he can feel something knock against his leg, but he knows it’s probably just a fish that hadn’t realized he was floating on the surface. 

He isn’t alarmed when the gentle knocking turns into a soft drag against his calf, or when he hears something splash not far away from him. He keeps his eyes closed, finding solace in the warmth of the summer.

Sanghyuk was definitely hiding something, now that Youngbin reflected on it. He always stopped himself from speaking, especially when he was talking about Taeyang and Chanhee. Youngbin finds it slightly annoying.

Though, now he doesn’t have to worry about that. He opens his eyes, looking up to the sky. 

Youngbin finds himself grow wary when the soft drag against his calf returns once again. He kicks his leg out into the water, droplets of saltwater splashing the surface lightly as he tries to get whatever it was that was touching him to go away. 

His movement must entice it further. Youngbin feels it against his back now, underneath him. His imagination makes his paranoia worse, and Youngbin turns to find that, to his dismay, Youngkyun had left the dock behind the lab. He must’ve gone inside, leaving Youngbin alone in the water. 

Something latches onto his hip, and panicked, Younbin tries to swat whatever it is away. His hand makes contact with another, and his fear elevates as the worst possible scenarios race to the forefront of his mind. It’s a siren. It’s Jaeyoon. 

The hand moves from being locked against Youngbin’s side to instead circle his waist, another doing the same. Youngbin’s locked against something in the water now; he feels whatever it is press up gently against his back. 

Youngbin holds back a plea for his life when the hands suddenly drop from their placement over him, and almost immediately he’s flipping himself onto his side, trying to get away. Unhappy with his attempt to escape, whatever had grabbed him before holds onto his ankle, keeping him suspended in place.

Youngbin tries to pull himself away, writhing in the water as he mentally berates himself for  _ ever _ thinking it was a smart idea for him to trust the ocean again.

The heel of his foot connects with something sharply, and almost immediately Youngbin hears a loud, “you  _ bitch _ !” echo around him.

“Juho!?”

Said merman grabs onto Youngbin, dragging him back towards himself angrily. “I try to do something cute and you kick the shit out of me!? You asshole!”

Chanhee’s attitude is reflected perfectly in Juho. Youngbin wouldn’t doubt that the two must have spent a serious amount of time together. 

“You call that being cute!?” Youngbin can’t even process that the other’s in front of himself - it feels unreal, and so he takes reacting to Juho’s sudden appearance one step at a time. “I thought you were trying to kill me!”

“I was hugging you!”

“That was  _ not  _ a hug!”

Juho pouts, sinking down beneath the water. Youngbin’s eyes widen. “Wait, wait!”

He feels a pair of arms encircle him from behind once again, and now that he’s not floating and knows who’s grabbed him, it feels more natural.

“Is that better?” The other’s voice rumbles lowly in Youngbin’s ear, and the man nods quickly, leaning back gently in the other’s soft embrace. The waves roll around them weakly. “I thought you hated the water,” Juho adds on quietly, murmuring his words into Youngbin’s ear. 

Youngbin ignores the statement that begs for an answer, instead closing his eyes as he reaches down to grab onto Juho’s arms. “Why are you here?”

“Do you not want me to be here?” Youngbin’s eyes shoot open, and quickly he tightens his grip on the other. Juho’s voice is void of any emotion, as if this was a possibility he’d given thought to plenty of times before 

“Of course I want you to be here! I’m just… I’m just confused,” Youngbin mumbles, turning to look at the other, “but of course I want you here.”

“I wanted to see you.”

Youngbin finally notices the changes in the other’s features. His plush cheeks from before had become slimmer, his entire face now looking sharper. He looks older, tired. 

“You look different,” Youngbin muses, raising a hand to rub against the other’s cheek. “Have you been eating?”

“What are you, my mother?” Juho scoffs, nuzzling his face gently against the other’s palm. “Yeah, I’ve been eating. Just working a lot.”

Youngbin nods, spinning around in the other’s grip before wrapping his legs around the other’s hips. He can’t bring himself to really believe Juho’s back, that he’s wrapped tightly in the other’s embrace once again. 

He’s scared of losing him again, and even more scared of getting attached once again after what had happened seasons before. 

“How long are you gonna stay for?” Youngbin murmurs, closing his eyes as he clings to the other. He feels Juho moving slightly underneath him but keeps his eyes closed, the water swirling around them as Juho cuts through it. 

“However long you want me to,” Juho hums, pressing his lips chastely to Youngbin’s head. The brunette grins, burying his face tightly against the other’s shoulder. “Is that okay?”

Youngbin nods. “Stay for a while,” he mumbles, turning his head to brush his lips over the other’s neck. He feels Juho shiver, and he smirks slightly. “Okay?”

“Okay.”

Youngbin drops his legs, gasping slightly when he feels the bottom underneath his feet. He looks up to notice they’re only a few yards away from the shore. “Oh!” He slips away from Juho, standing in the shallows before brushing his hand against the other’s cheek once again. “Do… Do you need clothes?”

Juho looks up and nods, reaching up to grab onto Youngbin’s hand gently. Youngbin smiles, running his thumb over the other’s knuckle before breaking away, stepping out of the water.

Instantly, Youngbin freaks out. How the  _ fuck _ and  _ why _ the fuck was Juho back?He wasn’t opposed, not in the slightest, but what made him suddenly come back?Why now of all times? Where was Taeyang? 

Youngbin was unprepared to see Juho again. He still is unprepared; he’d  _ moved on _ . And now Juho’s back, once again real and breathing in front of Youngbin. The brunette worries as he walks to his truck, which he’d parked haphazardly that day near the building, before throwing open the back door and grabbing a bag from it. 

He returns to the edge of the water a moment later, shouldering his bag nervously before crouching down, pulling the backpack into his arms before opening it. “I have… Are these okay?” Youngbin raises a pair of shorts from the bag, and Juho nods before extending his arms towards Youngbin.

Youngbin tosses the shorts to him, and he turns away to give the other privacy as he begins to rummage through his bag himself. “Where do you want to go?” Youngbin decides to occupy his racing thoughts by talking to the other, trying not to let himself sink into the past comfort he’d felt with Juho. 

He jumps when he feels the other wrap his arms around his shoulders again, crouching behind him. “That was fast,” Youngbin laughs humorlessly, nervously turning to look at him. Juho shrugs, hugging Youngbin tightly.

“I got used to changing,” he muses before pulling away. There’s a confused look on his face, but after a moment he turns away, looking back towards the water while Youngbin digs through his bag.

Something’s different. 

Juho feels it when he’s finally standing behind Youngbin again, after having vanished from the island almost directly after making his wish with Chanhee. He’d swam for the entire morning, just travelling in whichever direction his body took him before he miraculously found Youngbin.

He supposes it was just luck, but something deeper makes him feel connected to Youngbin in some way. 

He’s silent when Youngbin hands him a shirt, feels awkward when he pulls it on. Youngbin leads him back to his truck, and Juho stares at it curiously before opening the passenger side door, slipping into the vehicle. Youngbin does the same on the other side, placing his hands on the steering wheel.

Juho feels guilty for coming back. 

It’s awkward, as if he’d never met Youngbin before. He wants things to be like they were before, when Youngbin would hold his hands and he’d climb onto his lap without a care in the world. 

The question  _ should I have not come _ tastes rotten in Juho’s mouth. He bites his lip, suddenly angry at himself for leaving the island. He could be there right now, helping Sakura teach the children how to swim, or working with Chanhee in the gardens of the village.

It’s wrong.

“Is…” Juho’s voice is quiet, and he winces when he sees Youngbin jump at the sound of it, “is it bad that I came?”

“No!” Youngbin smiles, but Juho sees him not saying something. “I’m just a little surprised, is all.”

Juho nods, looking down towards his lap awkwardly. He wants to tell Youngbin the things he’d found out, but… Something tells him not to bring up what Taeyang had said, or what had happened on the island. Juho stays silent.

The drive to Youngbin’s home is silent, an uncomfortable weight hanging on both of their shoulders heavily. Juho looks out the window longingly, feeling at a loss when the 

The weight only lessens slightly when the truck pulls into Youngbin’s driveway, and the brunette pulls the keys out of the ignition after throwing it into park.

“So…” Youngbin breaks the silence, looking gently towards the other. Juho looks down, tensing his shoulders. “Let’s go inside.”

“Okay.”

Juho feels like an idiot. He opens his door and steps out of the car, hesitating for a moment next to the passenger side of the car before walking to Youngbin’s side. The human leads him to the front door, opening it before holding it with his hip, letting Juho walk inside before him. 

“You changed it,” Juho notices, looking around. The living room had lost its couches, and now instead houses a small table and a cushioned bench underneath the windows. “It’s empty,” Juho peers into the room from the entry way, narrowing his eyes at it. 

“It was more sensible since nobody comes to visit much,” Youngbin shrugs, “I’m not home much anymore either. And the couches were nice, I got good money for them.”

Juho nods slowly, pretending he understands why the other would get rid of good furniture for money. But there isn’t much time for him to ponder when Youngbin turns towards him, running his hands gently over the merman’s cheeks before curling into his hair. “It’s gotten a lot longer,” the human toys with the strands, “want me to trim it a bit?”

Juho nods, not caring about the length of his hair really. He’d do anything to stay this close to Youngbin, for the awkward feeling to be diluted completely by the older’s touch. Each time Youngbin touches him, it feels like the first time, when he’d cradled him to his chest and walked through the lab like he was holding something fragile and precious.

Juho follows Youngbin obediently to the bathroom, sitting on the edge of Youngbin’s bathtub when he’s instructed to. Youngbin shuts the door, crouching down in front of the sink before grabbing a pair of scissors from the cupboard underneath. 

Youngbin sits beside Juho before turning toward him, pulling the younger gently towards himself. Juho flexes his shoulders slightly, cocking his head slightly to the side as he waits for Youngbin to start.

“No, hold on, keep your head straight,” Youngbin murmurs, gently pushing the other’s head back up. Juho hums softly with understanding, trying to keep his body perfectly still for the other.

After a moment, he feels a slight tug on the back of his head, followed by a quiet snip. “Is it done?”

“What? No,” Youngbin smiles, “it’s gonna take a little bit. Be patient.”

“Okay, okay,” Juho almost nods, but remembers the other telling him to keep his head straight, and painfully tenses his body in hopes to keep it still. Youngbin continues cutting the younger’s hair, too concentrated on making clean cuts than realizing the dilemma the other had walked himself into. 

Unsatisfied with the lull in conversation, Juho tries to keep it alive. “Are you mad at me?”

“Why would I be mad at you?”

“Because I’m here.”

“No, Juho,” Youngbin sighs, “how many times do I have to tell you I’m not mad?”

“I dunno.” Juho frowns. “A lot of times. I feel like you’re mad at me.”

“I’m just surprised,” Youngbin repeats himself, scoffing quietly, “I mean, I didn’t expect you to suddenly come back. I’m not mad, I’m just…” Youngbin finally opens up, and Juho feels his shoulders drop their weight when he realizes how the other truly feels. “I just feel like it’s been so long, it’s gonna take time for things to go back to how they were before you left.”

Juho nods, Youngbin huffs. “I said keep your head straight!”

“Sorry! Sorry.”

Continuing to work at Juho’s hair, Youngbin falls into a concentrated silence. Juho finds the tugging and cutting oddly soothing, and closes his eyes as Youngbin works. He finds his head gently being moved by the other, and only opens his eyes once Youngbin stands up and moves to instead sit in front of him. 

He looks up, watching the other’s face as he focuses on trimming Juho’s bangs evenly. 

“Does it look okay?”

“I think so.” Youngbin nods, and after a few more snips he drops his hands to his lap, the scissors reflecting in the orange bathroom light sharply. “Go look,” Youngbin motions towards the mirror, and Juho nods before he stands, approaching the sink and the mirror above it slowly. 

His eyes widen, and happily he raises a hand to card through the strands of his hair gently. He leans forward to look closer at himself, narrowing his eyes quizzically as he toys with his hair. “How did you do this?”

“I just cut it,” Youngbin shrugs, “it’s not that impressive. Do you like it?”

“Of course!” Juho grins, “I love it.”

“Ah… I’m glad.” Youngbin smiles. He glances around for a moment. “Do you want to shower? I should probably clean my room a bit since… I mean, you’re gonna stay for a little bit, right?”

Juho smiles. “Do  _ you _ want me to stay?”

Youngbin blushes, looking away quickly. “I-I mean… If you want to…”

“Did you miss me?” Juho teases, kneeling down in front of Youngbin. The older’s face only grows redder when he looks down at the other. 

“Maybe… How long are you staying for?” Youngbin tries to change the topic back. Juho grins.

“How long do you want me for?” Juho places his hands on the other’s legs, stretching upwards to hover only inches from the brunette’s face. Youngbin’s eyes widen. 

They hold eye contact for a moment before Youngbin frowns. “Well, don’t just stay there…” He snarks crossly, grabbing Juho by the collar of his shirt before yanking him closer. Juho’s heart soars when Youngbin presses their lips together. Juho places his hands on either side of the other, leaning forward to deepen the kiss. 

When Youngbin pulls away, Juho chases him, only stopping when Youngbin raises his hand to push him away gently. 

“Stay a while,” Youngbin breathes, looking up to the other, “I want you to stay a while.”

“Then I will.” Juho speaks lightly against Youngbin’s fingers, opening his eyes to look at him.

Youngbin nods, moving his hand down to once again curl around Juho’s shirt. “Okay,” he hums, pulling him closer once again. Juho tries to close the space between them, but Youngbin holds him back, taunting him with an inch of space that Juho can’t cross. 

“Shower with me.” Juho states bluntly, the words coming out somewhere between a command and an invitation.

“Not a fucking chance.” Youngbin deadpans, gently pushing the other away, “not a fucking chance.”

Youngbin leaves the bathroom a moment later, pressing his fingertips to his lips as he questions  _ what  _ he’d just allowed to happen. 

Was he really just going to let Juho back into his life that quickly? Without consideration towards the fact that Juho would surely be leaving once again, and wouldn’t be able to stay with him? 

He had moved without putting any thought behind his actions; if he had even used a shred of common sense, he wouldn’t have kissed Juho. Wouldn’t have let the other kiss him. Youngbin rakes a hand through his hair as he paces back to his bedroom, mulling over the kiss as he rips the sheets off of his bed. 

Leaving them in a pile on the floor, Youngbin crosses the room to open the window, painfully remembering when it had been broken. When he’d loved Juho without feeling like there would be any repercussions. 

He looks around the room, grimacing at the state it’s in; which, really isn’t that bad, but he feels as if he’s being scolded when he finally sees the clothes he’d left littered around the room carelessly. He walks around the space, bundling the articles up into his arms aimlessly before leaving the room.

Clearly, he hadn’t thought anything through. He pauses in front of the bathroom door, not wanting to enter but not being able to access the washer and dryer any other way. 

After a painful moment of deliberation, ater yanking himself out of the in-between of leaving his room a mess until Juho finished or manning up and entering the room for two seconds to throw a load of laundry into the machine, Youngbin raps his knuckle against the door.

“Yeah?”

“I’m coming in for a second,” Youngbin calls, hearing the curtain pull ever so slightly against the bar it’s on in front of the shower. “Okay?”

“Yeah!” Juho yells back, the water sputtering in the shower the only sound that accompanies his voice, “yeah, it’s okay!”

Youngbin pushes open the door slowly, keeping his gaze on the floor as he navigates to the washer and dryer. The appliances are stacked on top of each other behind the bathroom door, neatly nestled into an indentation in the wall just perfect enough for them to not stick out. 

Awkwardly, Youngbin kicks the door shut behind himself before throwing open the washer door, shoving the clothes inside as quickly as he can. He reaches up, fingers curling around the bottle of laundry detergent on top of the dryer before he pulls it down, uncapping it swiftly.

He pours a generous amount of soap into a small compartment on the front of the washer that he opens after a bit of pulling (it always jammed at the worst times), desperately recapping the bottle before clumsily shoving it back on top of the dryer. He slams the small door shut, followed by the larger one that then locks his clothes into the appliance. 

“Sorry,” he murmurs, “I’m leaving now.”

“Wait,” Juho stops Youngbin moments after he starts the washer, peering around the curtain with wide eyes. Youngbin freezes with his hand resting on the doorknob, mentally cursing himself he hadn’t left the room quicker. 

“What’s up?” Youngbin glances over his shoulder at the other, feeling his face grow hotter before he turns back around quickly. 

“Can… Can I borrow some clothes?”

Youngbin nods, smiling gently before he opens the door. “I’ll bring you something in a minute.”

“Thank you.”

“Don’t mention it.” Youngbin hums, leaving the room after answering the other’s question. He shuts the door quickly, leaning against it with wide eyes after it’s closed securely behind him. “Fuck.”

Youngbin knows he’s going to fall back into the position he’d been in the first time he met Juho. He’d gotten over Juho, let him go after holding on for so long, and then he’d been thrown headfirst back into the waters of the other. 

And he’s going to drown.

Youngbin tries to shake the thought from his head, pushing off of the door before walking quickly back to his room. He grabs his sheets, throwing them onto his bed to get them out of the way before looking around the room for anything else out of place.

The floor’s clean, and all Youngbin can see to clean is the top of his dresser, which his phone sits atop of, the display lit up with a notification. Youngbin reads it as he opens the top drawer of the dresser, rummaging around for a shirt as he scrutinizes over the message.

  
  


**SANGHYUK:**

**Do you have any milk lol i dont wanna go to the store but i wanna make mac and cheese**

  
  


Youngbin grabs a shirt, shuts the drawer, and opens the next one to grab a pair of sweats for the man in the shower. He grabs his phone after, typing out a response quickly before making his way back to the bathroom.

“Should I leave them out here?” Youngbin calls, staring down at his phone as he pauses in front of the door. He doesn’t notice the shower’s turned off.

  
  


**ME:**

**The store is closer to you than my place is**

**SANGHYUK:**

**Fine whatever**

**Fuck u**

**ME:**

**Okay sick**

  
  


“I can just take them,” Juho mumbles. Youngbin looks up, seeing the other peeking out through the cracked open door with a towel wrapped loosely around himself. “Thank you.”

“Y-yeah!” Youngbin sputters, shoving the clothes forward into Juho’s arms, “here.”

“Thank you,” Juho repeats, closing the door. Youngbin nods, biting his lip. A moment later the door opens again, and Youngbin smells the laundry detergent he’d poured into the washer. It’s flowery; Youngbin had bought it on a whim, but he likes it. 

“Are those okay?” Youngbin hums, shoving his hands into his pockets. Juho nods before taking a step forward, his soaked hair slicked back and away from his forehead as he leans down to get closer to Youngbin.

The brunette looks up to the other, smiling nervously. “What?”

Juho shrugs, his lips twitching upwards into a slight smirk. Youngbin feels his heart racing, but when Juho leans a bit closer, he decides to give up on holding back. 

Nobody had ever made Youngbin feel the way Juho did. He feels like he’s on fire when Juho comes too close, when they’re breathing the same air and Youngbin’s barely able to think as thoughts of the other consume his mind.

Youngbin stops worrying. Juho would need to leave again, but Juho also wasn’t human. Youngbin had to accept that fact, had to get over that their relationship could never be  _ normal _ , by his own human standard, no matter how he looked at it. 

“You should kiss me.”

Juho can’t process what had happened after he’d said those four words to Youngbin. He’s only able to begin to recount it when Youngbin finally gets around to pulling the sheets out of the dryer, and he’s walking them back to the bedroom dressed only in his sweatpants and his own breathless demeanor.

The merman lays on his chest, face pressed against a pillow that smells dully like Youngbin’s shampoo. Thunder rolls in the distance, the sound of it echoing throughout the room, coming in from the opened bedroom window. The night air blows in softly, rolling coldly over Juho’s hot skin.

Youngbin comes back to the room a moment later, his arms full of the sheets he’d ran to the washer only hours before. 

“Woah, you got a tattoo?” Youngbin drops the sheets before climbing back onto the bed, sitting above Juho as he looks down at him. “I mean, it looks good-”

“-I don’t have a tattoo,” Juho slurs tiredly, extending an arm lazily for Youngbin to slide under. The human instead straddles the other’s back, grabbing his phone from off of the nightstand.

“What do you mean you don’t have a tattoo?” Youngbin chuckles. “I’m looking directly at it.” The sound of a camera shutter clicking follows his voice, and Youngbin slips off of Juho’s back before watching the other roll over to look at him. “See? It’s,” Youngbin points a finger gently towards Juho’s chest. The merman looks down curiously, eyes widening when he notices the black lines that circle his chest that hadn’t been there earlier that day.

“I…” Juho furrows his eyebrows, “are we sure it’s a tattoo?”

“What else would it be?” Youngbin’s expression falls when he finally sees how distraught Juho is. “Are you serious you didn’t know about this?”

“Yeah…”

Youngbin pulls up the picture he’d just taken of the other’s back, showing it to Juho. The merman’s eyes widen, and he snatches Youngbin’s phone to stare at the photograph, trying to make sense of the sudden mess of lines and intricately drawn design. It looks like a map of sorts, Juho realizes after a moment. He can make out the shapes of stars surrounding the lines thickly.

“What is it?” Youngbin murmurs, letting his fingertips dance over the mark gently. Juho shrugs, kneeling now as he continues to stare down at the picture. Though, he’s growing tired. The day had been long, and he’s too exhausted to worry clearly about the tattoo. “I mean, it’s pretty...” Youngbin leans forward and runs his lips along the edge of the design. “Like you.” Juho shivers, throwing his head back to look at the ceiling as he debates letting the other continue or not.

“Let’s go to bed,” Juho smiles tiredly, dropping the phone back into Youngbin’s hands. He decides on the latter, finding himself too exhausted to get that close to the other once again.

“We need to make the bed first,” Youngbin hums, pulling away after kissing the tattoo once more. Juho frowns, but begrudgingly stands and helps the other pull the sheets onto the mattress, listening carefully to the other’s instruction as he diligently follows him and his words carefully. 

Soon, though, Juho’s wrapped protectively in Youngbin’s arms, listening to the other fall asleep as he tries to do the same himself.

Though, he can’t.

He’d complained of being tired, but now that he’s in a perfect position to fall asleep in, one he’d dreamt of for months, he’s unable to. Youngbin snores gently above him, and Juho opens his eyes idly, staring blankly at the wall.

Was his tattoo the same as the one Chanhee had received the night before?

It would make sense, but why hadn’t Juho noticed his sooner? Why does the look of it make his skin crawl like he’s been poisoned?

He slips out of bed minutes later, after he’s sure Youngbin won’t wake up if he’s shifted slightly. Juho untangles himself from the human’s arms, and before he leaves the room, places a soft kiss against his temple. 

Youngbin opens an eye, reaching out for Juho’s arm. Juho grabs his hand, squeezing it before dropping it. “Where are you going?” Youngbin murmurs. 

“I’ll be back in a minute,” Juho hums, smiling as he takes a step back. Youngbin nods and closes his eyes once again, rolling over to face the wall as sleep pulls him back down as a hostage once again.

Juho leaves the bedroom, looking at his chest to watch the black marks that circle his heart. Chanhee’s had been small; why was his so big? 

He walks to the bathroom, flicking the light on before staring at his reflection in the mirror. He reaches up to thumb the tattoo, shaking his head slowly as he watches it. 

It looks like it’s moving. Juho cranes his head to the side, leaning forward over the sink to get a closer look in the mirror at the ink in his skin. It’s  _ definitely _ moving. 

Juho tries to call out for Youngbin, but the other’s name dies behind his lips as soon as they part for him to speak. His eyes widen, and once again he tries to yell for the other, but it’s as if the ability to speak had been torn from him completely. 

Something’s wrong.

His legs give out beneath him, and Juho collapses to the floor in front of the sink. His fingers had dragged against the sink slightly, and he hears the faucet come on when he collapses. His body betrays him, not allowing him to stand or to call for help. He rolls over onto his back and silently cries out when he feels something pierce his chest, burning him sharply from the inside out. 

Juho presses his legs together, as if forcing himself to transform might help him in some way. But, by doing so, he comes to the horrible realization that he  _ can’t  _ change. His body won’t allow him to do that, either, as if he’d somehow lost touch with that side of himself. Sickened, he realizes he can’t even feel the ocean’s pull on him. It’s as if he’d been discarded by it, and now suffers the consequences severely. 

But he doesn’t understand why. Not until he raises his hands, staring through them blankly at the ceiling above him. 

His body’s vanishing?

Juho pushes himself upwards as much as he can, his legs too numb for him to move them. He doesn’t know what’s happening - doesn’t know  _ why _ it’s happening. But whatever it is, it’s happening quickly. He stares at his hands in horror, flipping them over repeatedly to see if he could see through both sides of them. He can; his body’s fading out of existence as if it’s nothing but smoke.

He wants to scream for help but the words refuse to pass his lips, and so he’s forced to silently watch his body become more and more…  _ empty _ . 

He’s terrified. 

Was this a punishment?

He can’t think of anything else it might be; he’s being punished for leaving the island, for leaving Taeyang, he’s sure. He’s going to vanish into thin air, disappear without a trace, because he’d left.

But that doesn’t make sense - he’d cancelled his prior wish by wishing for another, hadn’t he? Was that why he was vanishing?

Juho tries to slam his fist into the side of the sink, hoping the sound will alert Youngbin to the fact that something’s wrong, that by him waking up something will change. Youngbin had fixed everything, he would surely be able to fix this too, right?

Regardless, when Juho’s fist makes contact with the wall of the cabinet underneath the sink, it phases through it as if he’s a ghost. 

He doesn’t have enough time to panic. He tries screaming again, feeling tears well in his eyes as he tries to figure out what the  _ fuck’s _ wrong with him. This had to be a punishment, right? A cruel punishment that he couldn’t understand yet. 

He’s scared.

Is he dying? He presses his hands together, not feeling anything other than a cold sensation where they connect. He whimpers softly, and upon hearing the sound, his eyes widen. 

Before he can call for Youngbin, can scream for him for help, he falls.  
His body vanishes before it even hits the floor.

* * *

“I just don’t understand why you wouldn’t have  _ told _ me that you didn’t like being around the others!”

“They’re your friends, I didn’t want to make a big fuss out of anything!”

“It wouldn’t have been a big deal if you’d just  _ told _ me! Instead you bottle that shit up and start petty arguments with me when I don’t realize you don’t like being around them? How does that sound fair at all!?”

Taeyang stands with his arms crossed, staring at Chanhee in the dark. The wind howls around them on the deserted beach.

Lisa, Johnny and Yuto had gone out for  _ God knows what _ , Taeyang didn’t care enough to listen. Jackson, Momo and Sakura were nowhere to be seen, probably off sleeping. Again, Taeyang didn’t care enough to know.

Chanhee looks away, glaring at the sand as if it had wronged him. He doesn’t speak. Taeyang can tell that the comment that had started their argument wasn’t the only thing he’d been holding back on saying for a while.

“I’m not mad at you, I’m just confused.” Taeyang starts, lowering his tone significantly. “You’re always keeping shit from me. I just wish you were a bit more open, Chanhee.”

Chanhee’s frown deepens. Taeyang scoffs. “I don’t want to fight with you,” the siren starts softly, reaching forward to grab the younger’s arm gently, “just talk to me about it. I’m not mad at you, I’m sorry for yelling.”

“You’ve changed since we got here.”

Taeyang bites his lip, furrowing his eyebrows. “How?”

“I dunno…” Chanhee guiltily scuffs the toe of his shoe against the ground. “You’re just… You’re more like them.”

Taeyang raises his eyebrows, dropping his hand from Chanhee’s arm when he realizes the other won’t be reacting to it. “Like who? Lisa? Johnny?” Chanhee nods. Taeyang looks away. “Well, are you scared of me?” He continues softly, his voice barely above a murmur now.

Chanhee’s silence makes Taeyang stiffen. “Chanhee,” he whispers, “you’re scared of me?” Disbelief fills his voice.

“I don’t want to be!” Chanhee defends himself quickly, slotting his fingers nervously through his hair as he looks up. “You just… It’s easier to see now that we’re not the same… That you’re  _ you _ and I’m human and that we shouldn’t...”

“We shouldn’t..?-”

“-We shouldn’t be together!” Chanhee blurts, his eyes widening slightly as he listens to what he’s saying. 

Taeyang stands still, looking past the other for a moment, staring at the space behind Chanhee as if it’ll strike him. He shakes his head, scoffing before he smiles fretfully. “You don’t mean that… You’re my Guardian…” The nickname falls from Taeyang’s lips for likely the last time. “We… Aren’t you supposed to help me out with completing wishes? We’re...”

“I did my part,” Chanhee cuts the other off when his voice trails off, “we aren’t… I’m done, I completed my punishment. Getting Juho away from Youngbin was my final task.”

“You’re not serious,” Taeyang’s smile falls. Chanhee refuses to look at him. 

“I love you,” Chanhee starts, his voice soft, “but I’m scared you’re gonna end up hurting me.”

Taeyang nods, pulling his bottom lip between his teeth tightly, biting down on it to keep from saying anything that may hurt the other further. After a moment, he lets go of it, breathing in shakily. “Then I won’t stop you.” He murmurs, feeling dazed as he looks at the other. “I don’t want to scare you. I’m sorry,” his voice trembles, but he covers it smoothly, “I didn’t know you were afraid.”

Chanhee’s crying. Taeyang has to force himself to not reach over and wipe his tears away, grimacing as he looks away. 

“I’m sorry,” the younger whimpers.

“You have nothing to apologize for,” Taeyang whispers back, the wind growing softer. The ocean is quiet, the waves barely making a sound as they wash over the shore. 

Silence passes between them for a moment. Taeyang looks back, his jaw dropping when he takes in the other’s appearance.

He’s vanishing.

“Chanhee?” He starts nervously, lunging forward to catch the other in his arms when he falls. He lands on his knees, the other enveloped in his arms protectively. “Hey, hey!”

“It’s cold,” Chanhee whispers, eyes wide as he looks up to Taeyang, “why… Why’s it so cold?”

“I don’t… What did you do?” Taeyang chokes. “Tell me you didn’t make any stupid wishes… Chanhee,  _ please _ tell me you didn’t wish for something.”

Chanhee had just told Taeyang they shouldn’t be together, yet Taeyang ignores it. He holds the other close, shaking his head as he takes in the other’s appearance painfully.

“I just wanted things to be better,” Chanhee trembles, looking up fearfully to Taeyang. “I wanted us to have a new start…”

Taeyang’s world falls apart around him. He reaches down in an attempt to grab onto Chanhee’s hand, but to his own horror his hand just passes through the other’s like he’s an apparition. “Chanhee,” Taeyang shakes his head, “why… It’s okay,” he forces a smile. 

He’d expected Chanhee to have known, but how could he have? Taeyang had never warned him not to wish on the stars. Because, no matter what was wished for, fate couldn’t be unwritten. Half of the wishes that were promised from the sky above were never completed - Taeyang had heard horrible things about wishes never being completed, about being forced to live knowing whoever had wished had been brutally taken advantage of.

So, they were finished. Over. Taeyang knows who Chanhee’s fated to be with, knows it painfully well as he recalls who had nearly separated them in their first lives. The only reason they were together was because Chanhee had refused to abide by the rules of fate, and Taeyang had fallen hopelessly in love with somebody he realistically should’ve killed the first time they met. 

But Chanhee’s fading, and Taeyang can’t risk scaring him further. Gently, he cradles the other to his chest, holding his head up to keep him from seeing himself disappearing.

“It’s okay,” Taeyang lies, rocking softly back and forth with the other in hopes it’ll calm his breathing, which had begun to come out erratically. “It’s okay, Chanhee.”

Chanhee would be alone until Seokwoo, the man whose fate intertwines with his, makes it to their next life. Then, and only then, will Chanhee forget about everything that had happened to him previously to allow fate to rule his life. He will fall victim to the one thing he despised the most.

He won’t remember Taeyang. 

“It’ll be okay,” he hums, squeezing the younger’s shoulders tightly. “You’ll just wait for me, right?” 

“Of course,” Chanhee breathes, his eyes wide as he stares up to the other, “Don’t make me wait long.” 

Taeyang laughs, shaking his head. “Of course I won’t.” 

But Taeyang knows the bitter truth. He knows it like it’s slapped him in the face, pushed him down and screamed at him. Chanhee’s dying in his arms, and all he can do to calm his nerves is lie to him and promise to be in the other’s next life, when in reality they won’t be farther apart from each other.

They’ll probably be punished for avoiding fate for so long, especially since Taeyang was able to read the stars and knew the consequences of disobeying them. Or, at least, Taeyang will be punished. Chanhee will likely fall nowhere near him, and he’ll live his life worried about him, unsure of if he was even alive or not.

“Why are you crying?”

“I’m not,” Taeyang murmurs, eyes widening when Chanhee raises a hand to run against his cheek. “Oh, I… Guess I am.” Taeyang tries not to shiver when he feels how cold the other’s touch is.

Chanhee worries his thumb against the other’s cheek. “I’m sorry,” he closes his eyes, shaking his head. “I just… I couldn’t deal with it anymore. Everything that happened between us, it’s just… It’s too much. It’s too painful.”

“I’m sorry.”

“It’s not your fault.”

Taeyang runs his fingers through the other’s hair. “You shouldn’t have to remember all of that.”

Taeyang will never be able to forget. He’ll painfully watch Chanhee fall in love, over and over again, with somebody who isn’t him. Part of him is hopeful that even though their fates don’t intertwine like that, Chanhee will still find his way back to him in the future. 

But, that thought is hopeless. Taeyang knows what’s going to happen. He closes his eyes, breathing in agonizingly slow in hopes that it’ll calm him down. But, when he opens his eyes and sees the sand underneath Chanhee through his skin, he lets out a quiet, choked cry.

“I love you,” Chanhee grabs for Taeyang’s hand, but his fingers phase through him as if he didn’t truly exist. “Taeyang-”

“-I love you, too,” Taeyang responds quickly, for the final time he’ll ever be able to. “I love you so much. You’re everything to me, Chanhee.”

The younger smiles, sniffling slightly as he drops his hand from where he’d been attempting to press it against Taeyang’s. “I’ll find you again,” he states assuringly. “And we… We’ll be normal.”

“Normal,” Taeyang repeats, scoffing slightly, “yeah… I’d like that.”

“We’ll be painfully fucking  _ normal _ ,” Chanhee stresses. Taeyang smiles pitifully, nodding as he looks away. The younger continues. “Normal and stupid. We’ll get an apartment… Adopt a dog or something...”

“If that’s what you want,” Taeyang looks back, feeling his smile fall as he realizes that the time they have together has drained almost completely by now. Chanhee’s seconds away from being lost permanently to him. “Anything you want,” Taeyang nods quickly, “I love you. We’ll make it work, we… I’ll find you. You won’t have to be afraid anymore, I’ll… I’ll change. I’ll be better, I promise. I won’t be who I was before.”

The space in Taeyang’s arms is empty when his voice cracks, but he continues anyway, as if the other’s still there listening to him. “I’d do anything for you. It’s you and I, always, okay?”

Only when Chanhee’s gone for certain does Taeyang allow himself to cry, choking on his sobs as he continues even though there’s no chance the other’s hearing him. “I’ll always love you.”

“Hey, Taeyang!” 

The siren tenses his shoulders, raising a hand to wipe away the tears that had begun to race down his face once the other had vanished. He sniffles heavily, plays it off as a cough. He hears somebody walking towards him, and turns to look at them as they do.

Lisa looks questioningly down at him but says nothing. “We just got back… Why are you out here all alone?”

The word  _ alone _ makes Taeyang want to throw up. He doesn’t doubt he’s alone now - if Juho had made a wish just as Chanhee had, which he assumes he did as he no longer felt an obligation to protect the merman, then they were both gone. 

Taeyang knows Juho would have lost his abilities given to him by the sea after making his wish, though. He only prays Juho wasn’t still in the water when it happened, forced to drown as a human as he had turned to the stars for guidance instead of the sea. 

“I’m… Just thinking,” Taeyang lies, smiling. Lisa frowns, but knows better than to pry. 

“Okay. Goodnight.”

Taeyang watches her leave, staring blankly after her. He’s thankful she’d left so soon; his tears return stronger than before after being suppressed, and Taeyang begins to feel himself coming undone.

* * *

“Juho?”

Youngbin wanders around his house, finding it odd when he realizes the bathroom sink had been left on though there’s no sight of Juho anywhere. He flicks it off slowly, hoping it hadn’t been on all night as he briefly looks over the room before flicking the light off, leaving it. “Hey, Juho!”

No answer comes back to him. He’s worried for a moment, but he’d gone into this knowing Juho would leave again, didn’t he? He calls out for the other one final time, checking the kitchen and living room before stopping. 

Juho had left again. 

Youngbin frowns, biting his lip as he murmurs out a quiet, “I at least expected a goodbye…”

It doesn’t surprise him that Juho’s gone. It’s painful, but he’d known it was coming. He just hadn’t expected it to be so sudden.

He’s unaware of what had transpired the night before, that the other was silently screaming for him for help, that he’d slept blissfully clueless. Youngbin sighs, shrugging as he looks around. “Well…” He’s sure Juho will come back. He’d come so suddenly and left even more so, it couldn’t be his last time seeing him.

Right?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the end <3  
if you notice any similarities... ^____^ anyway! saltwater constellations.  
i'm gonna miss this fic, i really liked writing it. i hope you guys liked reading it, too! i hope you're satisfied with this ending :( and if not, then maybe there'll be another fic similar coming up another time soon <3  
thank you so so so much for reading!! i really appreciate it and you so so much :(  
\+ im sorry if this chapter has some typos/errors i edited it but im lowkey DySlExIc *windows error noise* *windows shut down noise* so editing upwards of 5k in one sitting is hard to do for me but i didnt want to delay putting this chapter out any longer!! so here this baddie is!  
i love you so muchhhhhh :( thank u for reading!! i'm stupid so i'm kinda just like. amazed that anybody's stuck with me through this fic T_____T because i'm such a colossal dumbass like  
ANYWAY i love u so much!!! thank u so much for reading!! :> <33333

**Author's Note:**

> twt: @seafic


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